UMSI student consultants accelerate business

The free consultation services offered by University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI) students have been an advantage for woman-owned, veteran-owned Big E-Z Bookkeeping Co. Now, the people behind the award-winning accounting software can bring customers into a better experience, faster. 

“We have a new promotion promising we can get businesses set up for free within a period of three days,” says Michelle Carley, founder, president and CEO of Big E-Z Bookkeeping Co. “If we didn’t have UMSI students helping us for the past couple of years, we’d be much further behind than offering this promotion right now.”

Carley first linked with UMSI by submitting a project proposal to UX (User Experience) Lab. UX Lab consultants are UMSI graduate students who work with entrepreneurial and small business clients to understand their problems and improve the design, functionality and experience of their products or services. Their work is guided by UMSI’s dedicated Engaged Learning Office staff.

Carley needed help conducting usability testing to evaluate her accounting software with representative users. UMSI students helped Carley and her assistant, Deb Parkyn, develop interview questions, record tests and set up a user guide. 

“It helps so much to have a fresh set of eyes on something that you’ve worked on in such minute detail,” says Parkyn. “Consultants can come in and see where the holes are, where a user would get lost. They really help tighten it up.”

Now Carley says Big E-Z Bookkeeping Co. is conducting usability tests on their own much more smoothly, which is just the idea. UMSI students want to supply clients with knowledge and  solutions they can keep using. 

“Our roles as consultants are centered around coaching and evangelizing user experience,” says Kelci Henson-Forslund, a UX Lab consultant who graduated in 2022. She now works as a UX researcher at Fivetran. “In UX Lab, I realized the power UX designers have to help local businesses keep growing and supporting their community.” 

Michelle Carley’s next project for UMSI students will likely involve enhancing the setup of information on the Big E-Z Bookkeeping Co. website to be more user-friendly. 

She says fellow small business owners should submit a project proposal, the sooner, the better: 

“It’s a free service, and I don’t even know of a private service that can do the things UMSI students do. They can help in more ways than I dreamed of.”

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