Usability Outsourcing Overseas?

February 21, 2003 | 3 Comments

Web of Culture talks about a very interesting subject and brings up a good point asking the question: Cheaper Labor But Better Usability?

This is something I often wonder about with so many US companies outsourcing web projects to countries with much cheaper labor. An I don’t think usability is the only drawback to looking outside your own back yard.

An Excerpt:

The potential growth in offshore Web projects might present opportunities for a niche industry in the U.S. and Europe: Companies could establish usability labs that have no observation rooms or test facilitators, but are capable of projecting test sessions to offshore locations.

Filed under: IA and Usability

Comments

1. Alok Jain said:

I don’t agree with the article here.
“Unfortunately, these countries lack strong usability traditions and their developers have limited access – if any – to good usability data from the target users”

Indian companies actaully offer a good alternative, splitting activities between client location and India. There are a lot of activities like Generic Analysis (competitive analysis etc), Design, Coding, documetnation that can be done in India (offshore) while gathering requiremnts, strategy, user based exercises which can be done at client location. Overall this doesn’t comprmise on quality and also brings cost and time benefits.

The second statement mentioned in the article says:
“If local authorities or company managers decide to invest in usability, professionals can be trained. However, offshore design raises the deeper problem of separating interaction designers and usability professionals from the users. User-centered design requires frequent access to users: the more frequent the better. “

One this statement seems to assume that either all work happens at client location or in countries like India. As I explained earlier, this doesn’t have to be, an effiently defined methodology can take the best of both and optimize on cost and efforts.

Second it also seems to assumes that all users are present in US and Europe or such like countries. In Multinantional organizations users are present all over the globe, including countries like India. A team there in such case will have much greater access and understanding than in US or Europe.

To summarize, what is needed is a efficient methodology and discipline to execute it, if these are in place, such requirements can be executed in and outsourcing model.

Posted on July 21, 2003 10:28 AM | #

2. Todd Warfel said:

There are several flaws in this article.

“It is currently too expensive to develop websites and intranets, so project managers are looking to reduce costs any way they can. In the long run, expenses will likely drop for two reasons.

First, better tools, middleware, and platforms will be available as well as better Web services and application service providers. Currently, too much software is homemade or built with inadequate tools that were thrown together during the gold rush days.[…]”

It is not too expensive to develope Websites and Intranets - I’m assuming that the author means in the US vs. off-shore. There are plenty of firms that do development for competitive pricing in the states. Additionally, this is assuming only the dollar cost. What happens when you need something developed in 2-3 weeks. Unless you have a pre-established relationship with an OS (off-shore) developer, then you could burn 2-3 weeks trying to get a bid and SOW (scope of work) hammered out. The biggest drawback here is the language barrier, cultural barrier, and time difference. However, when you can overcome these, then for longer projects, OS development can be a tremendous financial advantage.

“Second, standardized user interfaces that free designers from reinventing everything and let them focus instead on their specific project’s unique content and features.”

I’m not sure what the author defines as “standardized user interfaces.” Is this UI elements (e.g. menu widgets), or full-blown interfaces? If the former, then we already have that. if the latter, then this is a long way off - if ever. Each project is unique. Some applications have multiple audiences that require different interfaces. There is no one-size fits all here. A one-size-fits-all interface is at the cost of the user.

”[…]Companies could establish usability labs that have no observation rooms or test facilitators, but are capable of projecting test sessions to offshore locations.”

But we can already do that.

An additional note: the previous posted stated that design and documentation could be done OS as well. In my experience to date, design and documentation that is done OS has yet to meet the level of quality that is produced in the states. Perhaps it will some day. But it’s not even close yet.

Posted on July 28, 2003 05:44 AM | #

3. Kelli said:

As far as I can tell this is more of the same exploitation we see in the rest of the American economy. Exploiting cheaper labor for their own bottom line when usability companies are struggling in the states and there are PLENTY of usability practitioners here in need of work. Again, these companies would rather exploit workers overseas then bother to support the communities that buy their products. It’s an old trick. And it’s getting older all the time. YUK.

Posted on August 7, 2003 11:59 AM | #