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While offshore usability has greatpromise, there are circumstancesthat are clear contraindications for an off-

shore approach. The following are flags

that should keep you considering onshore

operations only.

Immature Usability. Process-driven

usability is systematic, with defined tasksand deliverables. It is relatively easy to do

this offshore. But if the team works in an ill-

defined manner, the usability specialist

needs to be there. Sometimes decisions are

made in free-floating meetings. The usabil-

ity specialist struggles to be heard as ad hoc

design proceeds. This is certainly poor prac-

tice, as it results in high cost and poor qual-

ity. It is also a poor place to try to take

advantage of an offshore team.

Very Short Projects. There is some

overhead in working with an offshore

group. Briefings require travel or must be

done remotely So if a project is just a few

days long, the setup time for the offshore

work is not amortized over enough of an

effort to make it pay off. If the work is rea-

sonably straightforward (for example, an

expert review), the offshore involvement

can pay off over a few days. If the work is

complex (like tactical support for an

eCommerce site), then assume a couple of

weeks of investment for the staff to under-

stand the situation. The offshore group will

not break even for complex involvements of

fewer than six to eight weeks.

High Touch Environments. There

are some organizations where the usability

work requires a tremendous amount ofinterpersonal interaction. This might be

because non-usability staff are insecure

about the role of usability professionals. It

might be an unstable management struc-

ture. In these cases the amount of time that

offshore usability people must spend onsite

or communicating can become awkward.

At least some of the usability work must

then be done locally.

High Security. In advanced offshore

environments security measures appear

draconian. Companies who get BS 7799

certification dont allow free access to the

Internet, encrypt and mark files, and even

frisk employees. But there is a reason for all

this effort. The emerging markets are more

corrupt and so there is more risk. With the

extensive security efforts, an offshore oper-

ation probably has the same security as a

normal first-world office. If a highly secureenvironment is needed (e.g., military intelli-

gence), then offshore does not make sense.

Extreme Criticality. There is usually

some risk associated with offshore environ-

ments. Top flight operations have backup

power, phone, and Internet connections.

But there is still likely to be a bit more risk.

If a day or twos delay is unacceptable, due

to flood, strikes, or other unexpectedevents, then it is best to avoid offshore

environments. Certainly there is ALWAYS a

risk. But it is somewhat smaller onshore.

Travel and Blending Is the Best

Practice for Offshore Usability

Work. In India the term mortgage is

not commonly used. Referring to a woman

as homely is positive (it means she is a

dedicated homemaker). Checking out from

a store almost always involves three or

more people helping. While Indian usability

specialists will understand English well and

even be acquainted with America and

Europe, the cultures are seriously different.

How do you compensate for such cultur-

al differences?

From India we can communicate with

phone, email, and Web conference, as well

as FTP. But it is not the same as being there.

Remote testing is now practical. But remotein-depth interviews are as yet unproven.

A Decision Table: Offshore or Not?(When NOT to Use Offshore Resources)

E r i c S c h a f f e r | H u m a n F a c t o r s I n t e r n a t i o n a l | e r i c @ h u m a n f a c t o r s . c o m

Figure 1: Cost of an Expert Review (ten business days real-time)

Onshore Blending in Offshore

Project Director (local) 10 days: $2,000 per day = $20,000 Project Director (local) 2 days: $2,000 per day = $4,000

Lead (offshore) 3 days: $700 per day = $2,100

Sr. Specialist (offshore) 9 days: $600 per day = $5,400

Total Cost $20,000 Total Cost $11,500

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You can talk with colleagues. But it is hard

to develop the personal relationships that

help resolve the difficult points in the

design.

How do we compensate for the distance

in communication?

At Human Factors International, we have

found that the best practice requires travel

and blending of staff. Over 80 percent ofour projects blend local staff with global

resources. The local staff understand the

nuances of culture and language. They are

also easily present for design meetings.

Generally we figure one-third of the hours

worked on a project will be done by local

staff. Does this make sense? Lets take a

typical example of an expert review. See

Figure 1.

The blending cuts the cost almost in half,

while maintaining equivalent quality and

speed of delivery. A good deal.

There are also times when the offshore

staff need to travel. When a team starts

work with a new group, it is best to have

them visit for a couple of weeks. This allows

a personal connection to form and commu-

nication channels to open. Given this, the

only key travel is required when developing

standards or interface structures. A project

involving just detailed design generallyneeds no travel at all.

SPEC IAL SECTION : OFFSHORING USABIL IT

SALARIES AROUND THE WORLD

As Human Factors International tried to compare costs of doing usability work around

the world, we realized there was no multi-country salary survey of usability profession-

als. It was not possible to do a rigorous and detailed salary survey, so we offer this

anecdotal survey. We contacted usability practitioners and academics and provided the

profile below. They were asked to give us an approximate salary range for anyone who

matched that profile in their country.

Profile. The ideal candidate will have three or more years of experience in usability

engineering, including user analysis, interface design, and usability testing. Experience

in usability work for commercial applications (Internet, Intranet, back office, products)

is a must, as is consulting experience and/or training experience in corporate settings. A

graduate degree in psychology (human factors, cognitive, engineering or experimental)

or a field related to human-computer interaction is preferred.

S/he must be able to carry out usability work under a director, produce excellent writ-

ten deliverables, and communicate clearly with the client. S/he will be asked to perform

the entire range of usability work. S/he will have extensive interactions with clients, so

the candidate must have excellent interpersonal skills, be sensitive to the clients needs,

and be able to give small group presentations. Projects may include teams from remote

offices, so the individual must have the ability to communicate and work remotely.

Data from those who responded is given below:

Approximations provided by the following contributors: Costin Pribeanu, Elizabeth Furtado, Ivan Burmistrov, JacquesHugo, Jinwoo Kim, Luca Chittaro, Tomer Sharon

Country Annual salary in US dollars Comments

Brazil $12,000 to $24,000

China $30,000 to $42,000

India $24,000 to $36,000

Italy $40,000 to $45,000

HCI at the moment is taughtmuch more in computer sci-ence degrees rather than psy-chology degrees, so peopleinvolved in usability have veryoften a computer sciencedegree.

Israel $36,000 to $60,000

Romania $3,600 to $18,000

People doing this are HCIspecialists with an IT back-ground (very few), psycholo-gists (few and with little focuson UI), and quality auditors(with little focus on HCI).

Russia $18,000 to $30,000

Singapore $30,000 to $36,000

South Africa $24,000 to $130,000

There are very few usabilitypractitioners in South Africaand of those few, the majorityare in-house people and mostare academics. There cant bemore than four or five full-time practitioners in privateindustry and of them, proba-bly only two have proper HCIqualifications.

South Korea $50,000

United Kingdom $86,000 to $95,000

United States $80,000 to $86,000

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