GfK has acquired usability testing specialist User Centric Inc, to enable it to offer a global user experience (UX) service with more than 150 consultants worldwide. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Headquartered in Chicago with around 50 consultants, User Centric provides a range of usability testing methods, and also offers eye tracking, user-centered design, remote testing, and ethnography services. In the financial year 2011, sales totaled $8.9m

With the acquisition, GfK will add User Centric’s consultants to its existing teams at GfK SirValUse in Germany, and in the UK, Switzerland, Poland, China, and South Korea. The company currently has 25 dedicated and purpose-built UX facilities.

User Centric founders Gavin Lew and Robert Schumacher will continue to manage the company under the new name GfK User Centric, while GfK’s global UX service portfolio will be managed by Tim Bosenick, MD of GfK SirValUse.

Lew comments: ‘By joining the UX team of GfK, we make User Centric’s goal of being a truly global UX company a reality. Our clients demand consistent and high quality services for global research and design – and we are perfectly positioned to deliver.’

Web sites: www.gfk.com and www.usercentric.com .

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