Recs for user experience research/recruiting firms?

Erin Koehler Product Manager at Kinsa

June 2nd, 2014

Does anyone know of a good user research/recruiting firm with an office in the NYC area that won't break the bank? I'm not looking for a team of consultants to conduct focus groups and then come back with a report months later. Rather, I'd like a nimble organization that can help us quickly recruit subjects in our target demographic and then possibly also conduct one-on-one usability sessions (or we may choose to conduct them ourselves, depending on cost). Any recommendations most appreciated!

Anonymous

June 27th, 2014

User Research can be done in a more agile way, it depends of where you're at in your development cycle and of what your research objectives are.
The methodologies have changed throughout the years, a lot of crossed methods are used now e.g. small exploratory interviews + rapid usability testing + short survey. Also sometimes the usability testing are split into small one-on-one interviews and carried out throughout the project life cycle to validate as you go along features and concepts. The report is then very short to fit an Agile mode, it's usually an excel sheet containing issues, severity and recommendations. Depending of the context of use, a lot of the user research can be done remotely.
Hope this helps.

Patrick Gidich .

June 2nd, 2014

Perhaps UserTesting coupled with a good UX consultant might be a good fit for you.

UserTesting will get you feedback very quickly, and a good UX consultant will be able to help you avoid a lot of pitfalls and help set you in the right direction.

http://www.usertesting.com/

I know of a handful of really good UX professionals and could see if they'd be interested in some moonlighting work if that seems like something that would be of interest to you.

-Patrick.

Eric Landeen Director at doxo

June 2nd, 2014

Blink Interactive- based in Seattle but they do projects everywhere. http://www.blinkux.com/

Mike Masello

June 2nd, 2014

We used Akta out of Chicago for a full web UI/UX redesign a couple of years ago. They may be too broad or too far away, but if not and you want to chat on how it went feel free to drop me an email. http://akta.com/

Alper Cakir

June 2nd, 2014

Fake Crow, www.fakecrow.com