John Allsopp

Professionally engineered Internet solutions for humans

Be a website usability tester

One of the most important tasks in website development is testing a design with real users. A website must be usable, and only real users can tell me whether it is.

As a result, I'm looking for testers. The key to this is going to be diversity. I'm looking for people from all walks of life, particularly:

Internet experts and those who have never used the Internet before
a wide range of ages .. from the young to the very old
a wide range of mental and physical abilities .. from the mensa member and olympic athlete to the physically and mentally impaired, particularly blind people who have their own Internet setup, and people who are colour blind or dyslexic
a wide range of social groups, from the wealthy to the poor, from all political and religious persuasions
those with a wide range of interests, from online gamers to classical musicians
people using different or unusual methods to access the Internet, whether it's mobile phones, old Macs, Linux, Windows 3.11, web tv or anything else
different nationalities, particularly those whose first language isn't English, particularly if you are living outside the UK now (Japanese people would be of special interest at the moment)
those who left school at the earliest opportunity through to professors

The work will be (very) occasional, and probably require just an hour each time. It may be something I send you to work through, or I may want to visit you (particularly if you're local) to watch how you interact with a site.

Of course, you will be paid for your time. I'm thinking of an initial rate of £10 per hour.

You will be asked to provide information about yourself that will help me to choose the right testers for each site. I will also store my assessment of the quality of feedback you provide. All this will be kept securely and will not be sold or otherwise passed on to anyone else. You will be able to create and manage your own profile online, or you can ask me to do it, and you will be able to remove yourself from the program whenever you wish.

If you are interested, email me. Next time I come to this I'll create a form so you can enter your own details and create yourself an account, but for now, let me know you're interested and I'll let you know when the system goes live.