We have been providing expert UX and usability services to our UK and Australian customers since 1999, with theFore existing in it's current form since 2008.
theFore was born from another agency, Usability by Design, established in the UK in 1999 and in Australia in 2004. The Australian arm of Usability by Design merged with Hyro in 2006, to deliver user experience services to some of Australia's top companies including Rabobank, ING, eBay Australia, Intel, Canon and many many more. Gary grew the usability arm of Hyro to include 12 consultants across two countries, expanding the service range to include every aspect of UX research, design and testing.
In 2008 Gary Bunker left Hyro to return to the boutique consultancy field, and formed theFore. Since that time theFore has continued to work with customers such as Qantas, Electrolux, Suncorp, Subaru and QBE, to deliver expertise in the user experience field.
Since then Gary has grown the company to include two other consultants and a range of specialists who engage with us on larger projects.
Aussie websites need
to build more trust
An opinion piece based on research undertaken on 'trust' in Australian
websites.
Documentation
& usability
A session I was invited to give at the ASTC conference on how documentation
fits into usability and how they work together.
Usability
evaluation of University NSW website
A technical paper on work I undertook on the UNSW website.
VoIP
too tough to use
Article I wrote, published on ZDNet
User
research in virtual worlds
Session I ran at the OZ-IA conference in 2007
List
of links
A list of links from ZoomInfo relating to content I've produced
SecondLife testing, on ITRadio
A podcast of an interview I gave on a SecondLife usability lab I created
What's
holding VoIP back?
Voice Over IP software can save us all up to 85% on our overseas phone
calls. So how come we're not all using it? An article I wrote on the top
reasons...
Improved
usability award goes to Bedworld.net
Initially awarded for poor usability, we are pleased that Bedworld listened
and made some great improvements to their site design.
Beyond
functionality
This week I heard just about the worst comment from a customer support
agent that I've ever heard.
U.S.
Websites get serious about usability
On 19 April 2004, New York State's Attorney General Eliot Spitzer Announced
settlements with two major travel web sites, Priceline.com and Ramada.com.
In both instances, the companies had failed to implement guidelines published
by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (www.w3.org/wai) that would have
guaranteed the web sites' accessibility to people with disabilities.
Qurb
gets our Usability Award
Spam, as I'm sure you are well aware, is a problem. It's a problem because
of the sheer weight of material that comes in, forcing you to wade through
it every day to figure out what is worth reading and what's simply trying
to scam you out of your bank details.
Online
grocery retail customers score high
Usability by Design has worked closely with Ocado and Waitrosedeliver
to improve their usability - and it's nice to see that it has paid off.
Consumer magazine Which? has recently surveyed over fifteen hundred online
grocery shoppers to find out which sites were best. Ocado topped the survey,
with almost 8 in 10 customers rating it as 'Very good'. Waitrosedeliver
came next on the list.
The
new digital divide..?
You know you're getting old, they say, when the policemen start looking
young.
UK
Government web forms need to be more usable
The House of Commons' Committee of Public Accounts has reported that government
departments in the UK need to improve the usability of both traditional
and online forms, making them easier and faster to complete.
The
National Archives site is launched
The National Archives new website has recently been launched, after an
ongoing user-centric design process working closely with Usability by
Design.
Telecoms
Australia and a simple phone upgrade
Anyone who reads this site regularly knows I'm a gadget freak. Nothing
wrong with that. Only, I have a dark secret, a hidden shame that I had
to finally own up to this week when we had house guests.
Why
they leave without buying
Why do so many people leave websites without buying the items they came
to look at?
How
much business is being lost to email snobbery?
A friend of mine contacted me at the beginning of last week, with a problem.
Their problem was, they didn't exist. Quite a problem, really.
"... I would recommend him to anyone seeking a usability
consultant to partner with."
Helen Simpson, Asia Pacific Consumer Insights Manager,
Electrolux Home Products
"...allowed us to grow our customer base by 50% whilst
experiencing only a 10% growth in customer queries."
Craig Sullivan, Product Manager, LoveFilm.com
"...a thorough and detailed report, looking at every
aspect of the customer experience."
Paul Burns, Purchasing Manager, Woolworth's HomeShop
& Greengrocer.com.au