[Sigia-l] "Usability Professionals Must Disappear"

[Listera]

"kipp lynch" wrote:

> Some guru somewhere says "a good interface should be invisible" and
> everyone out there starts chanting the mantra.

I wish.

> How about the business model should be invisible to the user

Excellent idea. Remember all those dotcom companies that actually dedicated
multiple pages on their website explaining to us in excruciating detail how
their business model was so revolutionary?

> and so should the software;

Another great idea. I wish people would stop putting "Powered by ...."
buttons at the bottom of their home pages.

> seems just as true and just as meaningless.

So do you put one of those "Powered by" buttons on your pages?

> "the developers should be invisible";

They mostly are. While there's endless discussion about what language or IDE
is better, developers don't really jump up and down about titles as much as,
say, usability/UX folks do.

> "the business analysts should disappear";

I wish. They mostly are anyway, aren't they?

> "the sales people should disappear" (maybe that one is true);

You see how this works? :-)

> "the marketing people should disappear".

I wish.

> We should just serve the company and get our jobs done. Just need that group
> of universal soldiers who can do anything and everything and all will be well.
> In this era of specialization it just doesn't work that way, nor should it.

"era of specialization"? I think implicitly this is what's being called into
question. Do we (or our clients or users) need to waste a single joule of
our energy worrying about internecine wars among interaction designers,
interaction architects, user experience designers, usability engineers, and
the whole lot? Is the task so vast and compartmentable that we need all
these minutely carved fiefdoms? How is this helping anyone?
 
> Mark and many others are correct when the say stop the whining and get on with
> it. This "what do we call ourselves" nonsense has to end and Tog's Interaction
> Architect is no solution.

Hallelujah. 

> But please, don't start chanting "usability professionals must disappear,"
> unless that means everyone can just fade into the background and do their jobs
> (what ever that may be).

Everyone should. This why I advocate dividing the whole process of app
creation into just two parts: design and development (concept and
implementation). I would like to bring the nobility back into
design/designer, in its maximalist sense.

Incidentally, my usage of the "should disappear" phrase is like my previous
explanations here of how cinematographers or editors "should disappear" in a
movie: we should appreciate their work by not noticing it so much. Insecure
DPs or editors shout at their audience by excessive zooming or that 4.5
minute continuous dolly shot or rapid intercuts for no apparent reason, as
if to say, hey, look at me, aren't I great? Great DPs and editors just let
the story line advance.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba