UserPlus

Label for user-friendliness

Imagine that you walk into a shop and can find an independent label on various digital products that tells you whether a product is user-friendly or not. That is the ultimate ambition of IBBT spin-off Userplus. In the meantime a start has been made to make a software application that helps online professionals to make websites more user-friendly.

What?

Userplus develops tools that help web developers to create user-friendly websites. At a later stage the business wants to expand its work area to tools that help make all kinds of other digital interfaces more user-friendly. The ultimate aim is to develop a certification model that makes it possible to award an independent user-friendliness label to digital products.

How?

“We provide an online tool that allows web developers to upload screenshots and to select specific zones on those screenshots. Our tools then automatically connects those zones to our extensive knowledge database on usability”, says Lonneke Spinhof, usability expert at Userplus. “In that way the developers immediately receive information, comments, usability requirements, design patterns and best practices for that specific component of their website. They literally receive customised advice.”

In addition Userplus is also working on a second tool, specifically intended for usability testing. Yves Ferket, COO at Userplus: “We thereby want to express user-friendliness in concrete figures: for instance, via average task times, the number of mistakes made, the success percentages, etc. After all, that is becoming increasingly more important. The management wants to see concrete results.”

Creation?

Userplus was established as a company in June 2009. The new business developed on the one hand from a project of the IBBT research group on User Experience and on the other hand from the IBBT-incubation project. In the meantime it can stand on its own two feet and the first product will be released on the market during 2010.

Next steps?

Userplus will target an international market of web designers, website builders, web developers and usability specialises. The products are aimed at anyone who works professionally in website development and design.

The alpha version of the first tool will be tested in the first quarter of 2010 by a limited public. The beta version will then be released to a broader publish shortly after and the first tool should normally be launched commercially during the summer of 2010. In the meantime a second (test) tool is being development, which will appear later in 2010.

 

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