We are open for business :) Having just returned from Shanghai and planning a "usability seminar" in Shanghai for 2003 it will be interesting to to assess the interest levels to usability in the PRC. There are companies hiring "market research" firms to get a better understanding of their customers, but its rare, even for the larger brands e.g. http://www.haier.com.

Nielsen also had something on this at - http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020916.html

Posted by: daniel szuc on January 16, 2003 09:36 AM

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John asks:

What about outsourcing usabiltiy to China and India? Thoughts on this?

Wouldn't work at all, John. Though I'm from India, I'm also too aware of the work that most Indian software companies do.

Since there is such a gap between USA and India (of time, distance, and culture), we are usually given a spec and asked to code to that. There is little opportunity to find a representative user group of the actual users for usability testing. There is practically no scope for contextual enquiry and other methods because we're an ocean away. And lastly, cultural differences make it harder to predict how Americans would use the software.

Posted by: MadMan on January 17, 2003 12:15 AM

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MadMan writes: "Wouldn't work at all, John."

For what it is worth, I just read that some Indian companies are getting into the more "advanced" areas of the information technology business. So, I guess that I am still curious!

Posted by: John S. Rhodes on January 17, 2003 12:32 AM

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If we are talking about running a usability study on the "country demographic" - outsourcing makes great sense- yes! In other words, "outsource" the work or activity to a company who have the direct access to the right market e.g China, India or whatever. However, this is assuming of course that the company developing the product consider these markets as important in the first place in terms of users and sales. On a separate note, my point on market research was to provide some in sight and recent note as to how some companies in China are viewing the importance of "market research" (this has some impact on how I think they will view "usability research" in the years ahead, may even be a harder sell in China :) Time will tell.

Posted by: daniel szuc on January 17, 2003 10:30 PM

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