Wageningen, 10 October 2004 – The University of Melbourne has entered into a partnership with Noldus Information Technology. The partnership allows the university’s IDEA Lab to use Noldus software for HCI research and usability testing, to be involved in the specification of new software tools, and to serve as a demonstration and beta test site for new Noldus products.

The IDEA Lab is a center of expertise (interaction design, evaluation and analysis) within the Department of Information Systems at the University of Melbourne, Australia, together with a laboratory, set up with specialist equipment to conduct user experience tests and interaction research. The lab is used for basic research by postgraduates and staff, but can also be hired by companies and individuals. Steve Goschnick, IDEA Lab’s Research & Business Manager, explains “We aim to build bridges between the department and people within the ICT industry, to enable dissemination of information and expertise, to facilitate collaborative R&D efforts, and to let companies get to know our best and brightest graduates.” The IDEA Lab supports a wide range of usability engineering studies and activities, including user based testing; heuristic evaluations; cognitive walkthroughs; out-of-box studies; comparative studies; brainstorming sessions; and participatory design.  

 

One of the four test rooms, each of which includes the primary test PC and 3 wall-mounted video cameras that feed into a quad display/recording system.

 

 

 

 

 

A quad display of three video cameras and the user’s screen. 

The IDEA Lab has recently licensed The Observer Video-Pro as a tool for usability test design, data collection, analysis and reporting. The software enables students and researchers to capture and analyze users’ activities, facial expression, screen capture, and verbal communication. For this purpose, the system processes digital feeds from multiple video cameras, microphones and a scan converter. These can be coded and annotated by the user. Subsequently, video highlights compilations and analysis reports can be generated by the software. 

 

The agreement was sealed during a seminar on 24 August 2004, attended by academic as well as industrial members of the Melbourne HCI community. Lucas Noldus, who presented the seminar, comments “We are proud to be a partner of the IDEA Lab, which is a leading research and teaching facility in Australia. There is a strong interest in HCI research and usability testing in Australia, and we are happy to be part of it. An active role of users in our product development process ensures that future releases of The Observer will continue to meet the demands of researchers and practitioners alike.” 

 

To seal the agreement, Lucas Noldus (right) hands over a plaque to Steve Goschnick (left). 

Noldus Information Technology, founded in 1989, is a leading developer of software and integrated solutions for computer-aided observation, recording and analysis of behavior and human-system interaction. More than 3000 companies, governmental organizations and universities in over 75 countries use Noldus products to measure behavioral processes, to improve the quality of their data, and to save valuable time. The company operates from offices in the Netherlands, Germany, France and USA. In Australia, Noldus is represented by SDR.