Course Overview

Part One of a two part course focusing on Usability for the Public Sector - you can attend either or both days, however Part Two does presume you understand what the principle features of usability are, and how they fit with service delivery, web development and website management.

The public sector has a vast task ahead of it: To transform how the public accesses services. The aim is to both save public money and harness the potential of the web to improve public services and do things previously impossible. To achieve this, the public has to be able to use the websites, unaided. So usability is increasingly becoming a barrier to the Public Sector achieving its transformational government aims. This hands-on introduction to usability training course aims to make you usability minded, so that you bring a usability focus to your website.

Event details

Location: User Vision office, 55 North Castle Street, Edinburgh EH2 3QA
Date: 24 March 2010
Time: 9.30am - 5.00pm
Cost: £ 300 +VAT (Special early bird rate of £250 +VAT if booked before 19 February 2010) 

If you would like to attend both days, we are offering a discounted price of £540 +VAT for both days and a special early bird rate of £486 +VAT if booked before 19 February 2010).

To book both days, please see the details for Public Sector DIY Web Usability Testing at User Vision.

Price includes all course materials and lunch.

Who is the course for?

The course is aimed at Public Sector:

• Website managers,
• Web content editors,
• Customer service managers,
• Marketers,
• Communications professionals,
• IT managers,
• Web designers and web developers

What will I learn?

• How to use usability to address Public Sector concerns for engagement, inclusion, channel harmonisation, joined-up services, no wrong door, and avoidable contacts
• How to assess your site’s usability
• How to improve the conversion rates of your self-service
• How to enhance the usability of your homepage
• How to improve the navigation of your site
• How to avoid common forms usability pitfalls
• How to assess the readability of content
• How deep linking makes all of your pages a “homepage”
• How to appropriately use mobile web and Web 2.0 technologies
• How to make the business case for focusing on usability with senior management

The overall aim of this practical one day course is to give you a clear idea of what usability is, how it affects your site and the delivery of public services, and how to encourage your organisation to invest in the improved usability of its websites.

What will I be able to do?

• Conduct a Usability Inspection to identify usability barriers
• Perform a Card Sort to test your site’s navigation
• Prepare a Brief to commission external usability testing Access a Library of usability guidelines and standards
• Improve Web Governance to enhance the quality of content on your site
• Carry out a Readability Analysis

About the Trainer

Rob van Tol, a Senior Usability Consultant at User Vision, has 17 years experience in User Centred Design (UCD) and User Experience (UX) design in different sizes of organisations and business sectors. Having worked with the development teams of software companies developing bespoke applications for the supermarket industry, Rob has a post-graduate certificate in Adult Education and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) with the Open University.  He is currently studying for an MSc in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy and is a member of the Usability Professional's Association.

Other available courses.

Terms and conditions

User Vision reserves the right to cancel or reschedule a training course at any time. In the unlikely event of this occurring, we will endeavor to give as much advanced notice as possible, if such an event occurs a full refund will be issued. We do not take responsibility of any additional costs or expenses due to a cancelled or rescheduled course.

Cancellation fees apply: 4-7 days notice - 50% refund; 3 working days or less - no refund