Case study: Research design consulting

Passenger Wayfinding Study

Co-development of an original research design that combined face to face interviews and usability testing in Montreal’s underground transportation network.

The Work

The team at Ad Hoc Research were looking to create an original research design to test passenger wayfinding in Montreal’s underground transportation network. My experience with usability testing allowed the team to take inspiration from usability best practices and fuse it with their own experience with qualitative and quantitative measurement.

The Client Perspective

We were looking to elaborate original research in Montreal’s underground transportation network that mixed face-to-face interviews with usability tests.

Kate’s expertise in usability testing enabled us to draw inspiration from the best practices in the domain and to combine these with our own experience with regard to quantitative and qualitative measures.

Specifically, she assisted us in isolating the larger themes in the tests we were considering. She also proposed examples of scenarios worth testing as well as efficient measuring tools. Together we evaluated the conditions under which the tests were administered and she pointed out certain more appropriate options.  She was very pragmatic, quickly understanding the issues and giving us realistic and efficient guidance.

Once the questionnaires drawn up, Kate validated our approach and provided us with several recommendations. She skillfully anticipated field difficulties and suggested more systematic quantitative measures for each scenario, which consequently greatly facilitated data interpretation.

Once the fieldwork and analysis finalized, Kate made some very relevant comments with regard to data presentation, especially when it came to bringing a greater cohesion to the results. Throughout the project, she furthermore demonstrated an excellent understanding of our concerns and we were able to exchange ideas without any complications. Kate was an invaluable partner!

Audrey Paradis – Vice President, and Mathilde Duverger – Project director – Ad Hoc Research