[Sigia-l] "Usability Professionals Must Disappear"

[Stewart Dean]

At 11:59 09/08/2003 -0400, kipp lynch wrote:
>Some guru somewhere says "a good interface should be invisible" and
>everyone out there starts chanting the mantra. How about the business
>model should be invisible to the user and so should the software; seems
>just as true and just as meaningless.

I've no idea who first said it but I've used the principle of the interface 
being invisible for usability since I was taught it in university. It is a 
truism that can be used to defeat the worst offences of some web designers. 
Many visual designers like their designs to be looked at so will attempt to 
make the interface very overt. In the process they will reinvent the wheel.

So yes it is a mantra but it is a very good one.

Now there is an exception to every rule. Not all user experiences are about 
usability (shocking I know but it's true) it's about the most appropriate 
interface, not always the most intuitive. Some interfaces will require some 
learning to make best use of them. I call these skill based interfaces - 
but potentially these offer a route to truly invisible interfaces. Games, 
cars and guitars are three examples of skill based interfaces.  On the 
other extreme we have what I call experiential interfaces - think pray 
station and some computer games. With these interfaces the user has to 
explore and work out what does what - they are the opposite to invisible. 
These are potentially good for life style brand promotion that requires a 
degree of enigmatic confusion but obviously no good if you're creating an 
online banking section. And lastly there are interfaces that guide the user 
and take the users to places you want them to go using subtle positioning 
an unsubtle 'touts' or feature highlighting.

So the concept of the interface being invisibles is an important guideline 
in the user experience, er, architects tool box.


>  It was a silly enough sound bite
>for an interface, but it is even more ridiculous when applied to
>usability professionals.

I like the idea of stealth user advocates within a corporate environment. 
Steve Krug's 'Dont make me think' is a great persuasion tool to get people 
on your side as it practices what it preaches. I may not agree with it 100% 
but it's far better than some of the weightier and more extreme books out 
there. I used to order them in bulk from Amazon :) I did get to thank him 
when he came over to London last year.

Stewart Dean