ARINC’s user-centered intranet: Doubling user comprehension in just 3 weeks

Human Factors International & ARINC present a unique remote card-sorting technique to the 2005 Usability Professionals Association conference

Released on = June 29, 2005, 9:35 am

Press Release Author = Jesse Berkowitz / Human Factors International

Industry = Computers

Press Release Summary = Human Factors International (HFI) and ARINC collaborated on
an intranet redesign based on usability principles. Through unique data gathering techniques, the intranet was reorganized to be intuitive and easy-to-use for ARINC employees worldwide, boosting productivity and efficiency.

Press Release Body = MONTREAL. June 29, 2005 – ARINC is the leading provider of transportation communications and systems engineering solutions for five major industries: aviation, airports, defense, government, and transportation. ARINC is a $636 million company employing 3,000 people in over 100 offices around the world, with headquarters in Maryland, Singapore, and London.

THE CHALLENGE
With such a diverse workforce, ARINC's intranet must serve a wide range of employee
needs—all with the same user interface. Historically, the human resource section on
their intranet was combined with day-to-day administrative tasks. This overlap often
confused users, partly because it didn't reflect ARINC's organizational structure.
People came to the site expecting to perform a particular task, but were distracted
by other categories or bewildered by the terminology.

HFI'S APPROACH
HFI developed a unique approach to streamline ARINC's intranet: an un-moderated,
remote card-sorting technique using PowerPoint®. HFI gathered insight from ARINC
employees worldwide by using a simple test that subjects could complete on their own
and e-mail back to the design team.
This solution was fast and cost-effective. Forty subjects completed the card-sort
exercise in a one-week span. HFI expedited the process by leveraging its global
resource team in India, which performed the data analysis in just hours. In
addition, no travel costs were incurred.
The result was a new user-centered design, based on the international card-sorting
data from ARINC employees in Europe, South America, Asia, and North America. This
remote card-sort technique was jointly presented by HFI and ARINC at the 2005
Usability Professionals Association conference in Montreal.

THE BENEFITS
HFI and ARINC successfully reorganized the HR intranet site. ARINC's Human Resource
and Administration groups reached a mutual agreement on the new format, based on the
solid data gathered during the user-centered design process. Even more importantly,
employees around the world accepted the new design, since their usage models were
taken into account. In fact, reverse card-sort testing found that 96% of the users
understood the new site's categorizations and task groupings, compared with only 45%
on the old design. HFI's turnaround time from data gathering to finished design:
only three weeks.

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About Human Factors International:
Human Factors International (HFI) helps customers create Web sites, applications,
and Intranets that are intuitive and easy to use. Their work is based on the
Schaffer-Weinschenk Method™, an ISO-certifiable process for user-centered design.
HFI also provides certification for practitioners of usability. Since 1981, they
have solved thousands of real-world usability challenges for hundreds of major
clients. They’ve worked on more than 2,300 interface projects and taught over 1,400
courses on interface design. HFI headquarters are in Fairfield, IA, with regional
offices in Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco, London, New York, Mumbai,
Bangalore, and Singapore. To learn more, visit www.humanfactors.com.

Web Site = http://www.humanfactors.com

Contact Details = Jesse Berkowitz
Human Factors International
410 W. Lowe
Fairfield, IA 52556
641-472-4480
jesse.berk@humanfactors.com