Consulting Work:

Randolph Bias I also conduct usability consulting with The Usability Team, providing HCI design, UI evaluation, user-center design training, and usability advocacy. Please call me if you think you might want some help with your web site or other user interface.

Representative Engagements:

Companies served include a wide range of companies, from corporate giants like IBM and Dell, to Internet companies like Forgent, to public utilities companies like CPS Energy, to educational efforts like the UT Health Science Center library Web site and the University of Texas Distance Education Center.

Methodology:

Requirements gathering and prioritization
HCI design
Usability evaluation
Organizing to maximize effectiveness
ROI

Highlights:

We provide reports with embedded video clips
We work with the team to build a usability test plan that suits their needs
We gain approval of all stakeholders to ensure maximal receptivity and effectiveness
We leave behind expertise that can continue to carry the user-centered design ball forward

A couple of creative ideas:

Usability on spec - If you think you don't have the money to invest in usability engineering, we will offer you our services for no money up front, but for a small percentage of the resultant savings or increased revenue, to be calculated in a way we both agree on in advance.
Remote mentoring - Do you have a young usability team that would benefit from a more experienced person reviewing their test plans and test reports, making recommendations regarding organizational placement, or advising on how to get the best bang for their usability buck? I would be happy to serve as that person, based on primarily electronic contacts.

Call or email me at rbias@ischool.utexas.edu to discuss your needs.

References upon request.

Recent and Upcoming Events

This May 26th, we'll host our first "IX Lab Day," a webcast series of talks by students and faculty who have conducted studies in the past year. See more information on the IX Lab site.
Last year I won the student-elected Texas Exes Teaching Award for the School of Information, of which I am most proud.
Two students, two library colleagues, and I are pleased to have a paper appear in a recent Journal of the Medical Library Association: Moore, M., Bias, R. G., Prentice, K., Fletcher, R., and Vaughn, T. Web usability testing with a Hispanic medically underserved population. J Med Libr Assoc. 2009 April; 97(2): 114?121.
Under the "Research" tab you can read more about the two recent NSF grants on which I am co-PI.
In recent years we’ve been proud to have hosted campus-wide presentations by Jack Carroll, Mary Beth Rosson, Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg, and Aaron Marcus.
In the unlikely event that you should want to know even more about me, see Cliff Anderson’s profile of me in the UPA Voice, December, 2007 or the UT-Austin Graduate School interview with me in their December, 2007, “Spotlight on the Faculty.”