HumanoIT Group was founded in May, 2006 by Alexander Sergeev.
HumanoIT Group is the first company at Belorussian marketplace, that specializes in user interface design and usability-testing.
Our Services
Here you can look at our UX services.
Our Approach
We can often see how a person working with IT suffers losses of time, money and spiritual power.
HCI discipline (human-computer interaction) helps eliminate these losses by using the knowledge about human psychology. This knowledge will help you achieve your business goals. Moreover the results and financial benefits of its usage are predictable and can be demonstrated as early as at the initial stage of work.
The hierarchy pyramid of interface requirements
1st level — Useful
2nd level — User friendly
3rd level — Persuader
In order to rise up to the next level of the pyramid, you need to conform to requirements of the lower level.
For instance, there is no point in improving usability (which corresponds to the “user friendly” level of the pyramid) without considering the requirements of usefulness. As well as there’s no point in the system that doesn’t solve current user problems, i.e. is useless.
1st level — Useful
The system is considered to be useful if it offers users new valuable services or improves the existing ones. You can define if the system is useful only with the help of its users: by talking to them in person, evaluating what you heard and analyzing their explicit and implicit needs. Moreover, you can come to very important conclusions simply watching how users interact with the system or its prototype.
Unfortunately there is no universal way of creating 100% useful products, that is why it is a creative process. Useful systems can be designed only if you completely understand users and their needs. Usability methods of users' needs formal analyses and users' feedback make it possible to create such systems. Besides, usability has techniques and methods, which allow to test concepts and ideas even before they are prototyped and developed. .
Single products can be considered totally useless, but most systems suffer from inadequate description of requirements.
Product usefulness depends on its target audience, which is determined with the help of marketing research and product strategy development.
Methods we use to create useful systems
— Field research
— Task analyses
— Interview
— Surveys
— Observation
If the product is useful, it doesn't automatically mean that people will use it. In order to be used the product should correspond to the requirements of the remaining three levels of our hierarchy.
2nd level — User friendly interface
Usable system is the system that allows users to perform tasks they need. Usability is a system property that can be designed and assessed, by involving potential users in the design process.
Usability is a very important but not the only design factor, which is oriented at users' needs. Users of the system must be able to perform their tasks correctly in the systems they work with (e.g. in a bank, in a railway terminal). But it turned out that users often prefer to use systems that are obviously less usable. Factors that influence that are discussed on the last hierarchy level.
ISO (International Standartization Organization) defines usability through a combination of three factors:
Efficiency: can representatives of the target audience achieve their goals with the help of the system?
Productivity: which additional resources (e.g. time, mental and physical resources) do users need to achieve their goals?
Satisfaction: do users find the system comfortable and pleasant?
These criteria are described in ISO 9241 standard. It's important to mention that a product can not have some sort of inner usability. For instance we cannot say that «This cell phone has perfect usability». We can talk about more or less usable product which is used by certain users to perform certain tasks. Besides, newcomers study usable systems quicker and easier, and better remember basic principles of working with the system.
Methods we use to create usable systems
— Task analyses
— Prototyping
— Conformity of interface with recommendations and check-lists
— Expert evaluation
— Interface testing with real users
— United work on the design
If the product is usable it does not mean that people will use it. In order to be used the product should conform with the requirements of our last hierarchy level.
3rd level — Persuasive interfaces
Persuasive interface is an ensure that the product will be used. While the first three hierarchy levels are aimed at making it possible for the user to work with the system, this last level is needed to motivate users to work with it.
Motivation techniques persuade users to behave in a certain way. Psychology and HCI accumulated a lot of knowledge about how users react to different stimuli. This knowledge can be profitably used in interactive systems development.
Persuasive techniques can be used to:
— increase the number of permanent users of the system
— increase the popularity of certain system functions (e.g. paid services)
— change users' behaviour (make them more friendly, loyal, productive)
Psychologic rules, that are the basis of human emotions and influence human behaviour and aims, have been studied for more than a century. Practitioners started to implement this knowledge in applied sciences, including HCI sphere. New laws and principles have been worked out, as well as ethic norms, which are aimed at preventing the misuse of these new powerful techniques.
Methods we use to create persuasive systems
— Task analyses
— Prototyping
— Expert evaluation
— Interface testing with real users
— United work on design
— Persuasion is the last level of our hierarchy