Toronto Usability Companies

A brief history of user experience design in Ontario's capital city

Toronto usability companies were few and far between in 1998, the early era of the World Wide Web. Interpix Design was one of the first companies in Toronto to take usability seriously. "Back in those days, there were no conferences, no standards, very little in the way of metrics. Advances in Human Computer Interaction (Jakob Nielsen) was only a couple years old and really known only to a handful of geeks," says Murray Sanders. "We worked at one of the big banking offices downtown. You knew who the interaction design people were because we were the ones who came to the office in shorts. In those days we focused mainly on design. Usability became an area of specialization a little while later."

 

Interpix Design Inc

1101 Clarkson Road North
Suite 302
Mississauga, Ontario
L5J 2W1

1 877 346 2998

There were a few other usability companies in Toronto in those early days. 4th Medium was also fledgling. Quarry was a small company growing steadily, about an hour outside of Toronto. In '98 Murray and his usability partner Jamie Ingham stepped out on their own with Interpix Design. They set up offices close to the lakeshore in Mississauga, becoming the first Mississauga usability company, in fact.

They quickly established Interpix as the premiere Toronto usability company to consult with if you wanted usability for your finance related web site. Earlier work for TD Canada Trust led to user experience design work for numerous other banking and finance firms, including Bank of Montreal (as it was then known), CIBC and RBC, along with other prestigious firms including MicroSoft, NCR, Rogers and numerous others.

"We've had the privilege of being the usability company for many of Toronto's best known companies," says Murray Sanders, Principal at Interpix. "We like to think there's something unique about Toronto. Being a Canadian company gives us a unique position to create user experiences for both American and European users and to help those two different markets communicate with each other.

Usability Toronto
Usability Toronto is a unique take Interpix offers within the industry, as Toronto stands as a kind of gateway between the huge US market and other world markets. As Sanders says, "Many companies in the US feel that we have a better understanding of those European markets because we have closer ties there and perhaps less of an aggressive, conservative bent that many US companies might have."

A sampling of Canadian citizens is likely to be closer in attitude and aspect to Europeans than what you might find in an average sampling in a major US city. "We provide a kind of middle ground," says Sanders "and we're able to provide unique insights into how non-US users use US products and services. Usability Toronto is closer to usability London than usability Los Angeles might be."

Of course, Interpix also brings a deep understanding of the Canadian market and so usability in Toronto provides a pretty good window into issues users might face anywhere in Canada, concerning the market, the way the economy works and service-oriented issues.

"We look forward to a healthy future in the arena of Toronto usability. As new technology renders more and more products with a variety of interfaces, we want to be there to help as many companies as possible - from Toronto, Canada, North America and the rest of the world - optimize their user experience."

Make Interpix your Toronto usability company