MetrixLab Buys Usability Specialist

Online agency MetrixLab has acquired web site and software usability research specialist 2C in the Netherlands.

2C was founded in 1999 to conduct usability studies through its in-lab tests and user experience methodologies. The company will be integrated into MetrixLab's E-Business Performance Research group which will be led by 2C's Founders and Managing Partners, Wouter van den Berg and Bastiaan Klooster.

According to MetrixLab CEO Han de Groot, companies are spending on average of 13% of their web site design budgets on usability testing, which amounts to a potential market of around EUR 300m.

'Usability is increasingly becoming a core component of online marketing,' said de Groot. 'The markets are growing very quickly because more and more companies are realising that an optimal online experience is directly linked to commercial success.'

De Groot added that the acquisition of 2C had been driven by these trends and that MetrixLab's next big step would be the launch of an online usability test to allow consumers to test web sites remotely from their homes, instead of taking a test in a laboratory.

Van den Berg says joining MetrixLab presented the opportunity to provide clients with worldwide site, mobile and interactive TV analysis; as well as giving access to MetrixLab's much larger online panel and portfolio of research tools.

MetrixLab is headquartered in the Netherlands, with local offices in the UK, Spain and Germany. Earlier in the year, the firm announced that its revenue and profit before tax more than doubled in 2006 (www.mrweb.com/drno/news6490.htm ). Web sites are www.MetrixLab.com and www.2c.nl.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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