Our Usability Staff includes several Ph.D's - in Cognitive or Experimental Psychology and many others with advanced degrees and experience in the field. We have in-depth backgrounds in Cognitive Science, Human Factors, Ergonomics, Industrial Design, Internet Systems and products, Information and Telecommunications Systems, and Systems Analysis.

Our applications areas include Internet, office systems; telecommunications operations centers and systems; personal communications, home media, and information systems; and advanced consumer and business electronics systems.

We tailor the Human Interface attributes of systems and products to be compatible with the user personnel's knowledge base, physical and mental skills and capacities; this speeds the acquisition of operations proficiency, maximizes safety, and minimizes training requirements and system downtime due to Human Error.

In new product development our Usability professional contribute to the specification of the feature-functions, and user interface architecture and improve a variety of product attributes including usability, manufacturability, installability, and maintainability. We develop simulations and mock-ups, perform usability testing, and develop documentation and training optimized for compatibility with user learning characteristics and capabilities.

Why Usability and Human Factors

• The Usability - Most system design includes little expert treatment of the people who will use the system/product. Designers and developers, though skilled in the technology and engineering fields, have typically only perfunctory training and experience in the Human Factors disciplines. Too often this uneven mixture of technology versus human expertise results in designs that does not meet the user's expectations or needs. The result is a failure of the system/product to meet business or performance expectations.

• The KOHL Group is expert in designing systems and products that people find intuitive, easy to use, useful and attractive. Our unique expertise lies in the intersection of the Psychological and Social Sciences, such as cognition, perception, learning, memory, problem solving, organizational, social and educational psychology; and the Engineering and Systems Disciplines, such as, computer science, software, electronic systems, telecommunications, operations and systems analysis. This multidisciplinary blend of expertise is the mixture required to blend successfully the system/product design with its users.

• We employ our knowledge of how people function, to design the functions and features of systems/products that work best with the intended users. We employ the most appropriate and advanced techniques to derive from people and their environments the optimal set of system/product functions and features for success. Then we design and test the physical and informational interfaces through which people use the system/product. The interfaces are designed such that the users learn and use the functions easily and without error. We design jobs and organizational structures to optimize the impact of the new products and systems. We design the documentation and training, in concert with the interfaces, so that the user support features of the product are coordinated totally with the design.

• Our efforts establish hi-fidelity channels of communications between the traditional development process and the prospective users. This locks the product or system in step with the needs and characteristics of the user and enhances the likelihood of success. It also establishes strong foundations for marketing and sales.

For more information on our Usability- Human Factors Services, Please contact us at usability@kohlgroup.com

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