This brochure describes the different services focused on Rich User Experience (RUE) that Luristic offers including researching, consulting, designing, engineering, testing, and training.

1. Services Brochure

2. Services
Rich User Experience (RUE) is
a complex multi-disciplinary field
that requires a combination of
expertise to master.
RUE is both art and science,
making it hard to calibrate and
measure due to some of the
inherit intangibles.
By its very nature, RUE is quite sensitive. It’s like cooking – without the right
ingredients, mixed the right way, cooked at the right temperature, for the right
amount of time, and you miss your meal.
As a result, it is quite easy to fail when attempting to offer a rich user experience
for an application, a website, or a game. What is even worse is that you don’t
even know that you failed until it’s too late.
From researching
On one end of the spectrum, early adopters tend to get too excited about new to consulting,
technologies, and thus, they overdo things by over-using widgets, animation, from designing to
sound, and special effects to the point where all such niceties become not just
engineering, and
annoying but unproductive and even intrusive.
from testing to
On the other end of the spectrum, laggards resist change and tend to like the training, Luristic
status quo. By not acting, they take a risk of losing market share to their offers a
competitors, especially in industries where change is constant and where product comprehensive
life shelves are increasingly shortening. set of services
Therefore, it is critical for all stakeholders involved in RUE, from early adopters to focused on Rich
laggards, to be well trained and experienced enough to strike a healthy balance User Experience
between cutting and bleeding edge. (RUE).
Often times, the required experience and expertise is not available in-house. In
such event, it is highly advisable to either seek outside help from experts, or train
existing staff, if they are qualified and if time permits.
In order to assist companies in their projects, Luristic offers a complete set of
services focused exclusively on RUE. Whether you need a researcher to define
the needs, or a consultant for advice, or a designer to spice things up, or an
engineer for development, or a tester to check the usability, or a trainer to teach
you the tricks of the trade, you can expect nothing short of highly professional
services worth every bit of your dime.
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3. Researching
Luristic’s research services attempt to
establish usability rather than functionality
or usefulness by addressing issues
related to Rich User Experiences (RUE)
such as navigation, workflow, information
architecture, taxonomy, layouts, special
effect, animation, sound, aesthetics, etc.
In other words, usefulness, which is
fundamental, deals with functionality, while
usability, which is critical, deals with usage.
Usefulness supersedes usability. Here are
the four scenarios listed from the best to
the worst:
 The best scenario is a useful product that is easy to use.
Establishing  A not so good scenario is a useful product that is difficult to use (most
common scenario).
needs,
understanding  A bad scenario is a useless product that is easy to use.
motivations,
 The worst scenario is a useless product that is difficult to use.
observing
behaviors, Market research is not useful when the needs or wants do not exist yet in the
identifying marketplace and need to be created. For example, no market research, of any kind,
personas, would have established the need or want for a personal computer, let alone for a
mouse, 30 years ago. When Henry Ford built his first car, he was quoted as saying
establishing “If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.” In
workflow, innovative cases, often times market research is used not so much to define
defining functionality but to refine it. In addition, we often measure everything but understand
taxonomy, and nothing.
conducting Considering the subjectivity and the unreliability inherent in market research, one
ethnography, should not count solely on research, especially not on a single method of research.
For instance, discovering requires different market research methodologies versus
validating. Depending on the requirements of a particular project, a market research
can be formal or informal, on premise or remote, private or public. It might be
conducted as live or telephone interviews, in focus groups, with surveys, or through
opinions of experts.
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4. Consulting
Luristic offers consulting services focused
exclusively on Rich User Experiences
(RUE).
Our consulting services consist of the
following:
 Discovering and analyzing the
needs through market
research, focused user groups,
behavioral studies,
ethnographic studies, and
persona definitions.
 Analyzing the market (i.e., phase, size, growth, etc.) and the
competitive landscape (i.e., market penetration, market share, mind
share, features list, etc.)
 Analyzing the solutions, risks, schedules, milestones, deliverables,
human resources, and budget.
 Strategizing and identifying the appropriate solutions, technologies,
methodologies, processes, and positioning.
Advice, counsel,
 Advising and counseling technical staff, executives, and board
recommendation,
members.
strategy, audit,
 Planning activities, events, and projects with detailed project plans. due diligence, and
 Identifying metrics and measuring ROIs on RUE projects. expert witness
testimonial related
 Establishing standards for technical institutions, associations, and
bodies. to usability and
user experience.
 Technical review of papers, codes, architectures, curriculums, etc.
 Verifying and auditing for due diligence for investors, investment
bankers, bankers, or buyers.
 Arbitrating and acting as judges in disputes.
 Testifying as expert witnesses in legal proceedings.
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5. Designing
Design is not about mere decoration but about
solving a problem, satisfying a need, or
fulfilling a desire. Design is not just about how
it looks or how it feels, but also how it works.
Our design practice covers six areas:
 Information Design consists of
building an information
architecture or structure often
referred to as a taxonomy (if built
by experts) or folksonomy (if built
by users). Deciding on how to
categorize, group, and label items
based on data, personas, or tasks
can have a dramatic impact on
user experience.
 Interactive Design consists of providing the type and the form of interaction
between users and an application, a website, or a game. Choosing the right type
of interaction is critical. For example, a unique selection from multiple choices
can be provided in three ways: radio buttons, toggle buttons, or a drop down list.
In addition to choosing the right interaction, providing the appropriate way of
interacting is as important.
Information
design,  Navigation Design consists of providing the right access paradigm and the right
browsing technique relative to the type of information, the task on hand, and the
interactive user persona. For instance, browsing through a list of pictures using a carousel is
design, much more productive and enjoyable for a teenager versus a table, which would
be much more suitable for a list of jobs for an adult searching for a new career.
navigation
design, graphic  Graphic Design consists of creating illustrations, icons, logos, pictures, images,
videos, layouts, prototypes, models, templates, wire frames, forms, fonts, buttons,
design, animation backgrounds, textures, and gradients. Applications and websites no longer have
design, and to be married to the aesthetics of an operating system or a browser but rather to
the company’s brand.
sound design.
 Animation Design consists of designing all special effects when an action occurs
which could be hovering over an object, clicking on a button or a tab, refreshing a
webpage, dragging and dropping an item, opening or closing a window, sizing an
object, selecting from a drop down menu, etc.
 Sound Design consists of providing an appropriate sound effect for a particular
task for the purpose of informing or alerting the user of the status of a transaction
or the consequence of an action, which help users determine intuitively what has
be done or what needs to be done.
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6. Engineering
Luristic offers software engineering
services focused exclusively on
Rich User Experiences (RUE).
Our software engineering practice is
a full service covering the entire
software engineering cycle including
analysis, specification, architecture,
design, modeling, prototyping,
programming, testing,
documentation, installation,
integration, and maintenance of
Rich Interactive Applications (RIA).
Almost all software applications require a graphical user interface with a varying
degree of richness. Thus, our software engineering services apply to all types
and sizes of applications, websites, or games.
Methodologies are quite important because they help mitigate risks. The
common major risks are failing to deliver at all, failing to deliver on time, or
failing to deliver within budget. In addition, there are often conflicting goals such
as speed versus quality, short-term versus long-term, development cost versus
maintenance cost. Hence, from conventional and structural water-fall
methodology applicable to very large mission critical systems, to progressive Entire product life
and iterative agile methodology applicable to web-based consumer oriented cycle including
applications, we can adopt to whatever methodology is requested by customers architecting,
or required by the project. While each methodology has its pros and cons, all
methodologies demand a common-sense balance between time, cost, quantity, programming,
quality, and maintainability. installing,
integrating,
Based on our experience, there is no such thing as the “ideal mix” but the “right
mix” for each application for each customer. However, there are some common
testing,
denominators. For instance, in almost all cases, it makes a lot of sense to documenting,
spend as much time as possible on analyzing, specifying, architecting, and and maintaining.
designing before programming.
It is also commonly advisable to prototype the graphical user interface on the
front-end before implementing the business rules, the data model, and the
database schema on the back-end. Such logical user-centric approach
emphasizes what to develop for users by seeking early their feedback and their
collaboration, instead of focusing on how to develop the application which would
be more of an engineering-centric or feature-centric approach.
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7. Testing
Luristic offers usability testing services
focused on checking the user experience
and the usability of applications, websites,
and games.
The main purpose of usability testing is to
discover if a product is easy to use, intuitive,
clear, and pleasant for users to use.
The usability is tested by monitoring users’
behavior, attention, impressions, reactions,
choices, preferences, and selections.
The objective is to discover and mitigate any problems, difficulties, obstacles,
ambiguities, confusions, frictions, distractions, frustrations, errors, and omissions
that users may encounter while using a product.
Even though the focus of usability testing is on the usage and not the usefulness,
which should have been established at the specification stage where the needs and
the wants should have been defined already, it is not uncommon to discover new
Usability testing facts or priorities about the usefulness, if not of the entire application, at least for
certain features.
using design
heuristics, human Users’ behaviors and attitudes are tested using scripted and non-scripted tests in
factors, GUI controlled and real life environments. Structured tests are very effective for testing
known specific issues that enable or prevent users from performing a desired
standards,
function, while unstructured tests lead to discovering new unknown issues or
cognitive generating suggestions by allowing users to explore, browse, and wonder around
walkthroughs, freely. The latter methodology is quite insightful because it helps discover what
personas, web attracts users to make certain selections, their personal interests, and their
preferences.
analytics, screen
captures, mouse A controlled environment is most suitable when there is a need for a higher degree
movement, and of monitoring and measurement, especially but not necessarily, for scripted tests
eye tracking. designed to test very specific issues. On the other hand, a real life environment
offers a practical and a pure insight of users’ behavior and attitude which are not
polluted by artificial issues such as a tester’s desire to please the vendor or the
administrator of the test, the pressure of a lab, the intimidation of a specific test, self
blaming, lack of self confidence, herding effect, and the like. All such artificial effects
greatly influence the results and their interpretation.
While testing usability and analyzing the results, we use different tools, methods and
standards such as design heuristics, human factors, GUI standards, cognitive
walkthroughs, personas, and web analytics which are usually quite revealing and
complement eye-tracking by either confirming or contradicting its findings.
Furthermore, a review of your product provided by one of our usability experts can
complement formal usability tests conducted on users.
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8. Training
Luristic offers training services
focused exclusively on Rich User
Experiences (RUE).
We offer two types of courses:
 Conceptual courses on methodologies, processes, standards, and
best-practices related to experience design, interactive design,
graphic design, animation design, sound design, information
architecture, usability, usability testing, prototyping, modeling, wire
framing, and personas.
 Technological courses on specific tools such as Adobe AIR, Adobe
Flex, Microsoft Silverlight, etc.
Each class has a well-defined curriculum along with workshops whenever
applicable. The curriculum of a private course can be customized to meet some
specific needs of a particular company. Each student who completes a course
receives a certification, without any grade, for completing that course. Courses covering
Luristic has on board renowned instructors who have written books, conducted all aspects of RUE
research, publish papers, and gave speeches on RUE. Multiple instructors could - from tools to
give the same course at different times. Each instructor has a profile, reviews,
and ratings which establish his/her meritocracy in the students’ eyes. methodologies -
offered in private
Courses and instructors are rated and reviewed by students. Such open
feedback allows us to polish our courses and improve our instructors’ teaching or in public, in
skills. It also gives the opportunity to potential students to make an intelligent house or on site,
assessment on which courses and instructors to select.
and intended to
At the end of a course, students are expected to know the topics taught. In case programmers,
we are training teachers how to teach our courses to their students, we provide
the necessary authorization for those teachers to teach a particular course for a designers,
particular audience. information
The constituents who have the need and who typically request our training
architects, usability
services are programmers, software engineers, engineering managers, product testers, and
managers, graphic designers, information architects, and instructors.
managers.
Luristic has state-of-the-art training centers which include fully equipped
classrooms with computers, a tablet, a projector, a large screen, large scrollable
white boards, ergonomic furniture, audio system, etc. Most of public courses are
taught at our facilities or on the web. Private courses can be taught at either our
facilities or at a customer’s premises. The minimum number of students for a
physical class is 3, and the maximum is 20 students, while online classes have
no restrictions.
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9. 1036 Quail Ridge
Irvine, California
92603
www.Luristic.com
info@Luristic.com
sales@luristic.com
careers@Luristic.com
Tel: (949) 678-9930
© 2010 Luristic Corporation