[Sigia-l] Usability Testing comments from Giga

[joe]

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Peter Boersma" <peter.boersma at ezgov.com>
Reply-To: <peter.boersma at ezgov.com>
Date:  Wed, 26 Mar 2003 09:45:58 +0100

>Joe wrote:
>> You might be interested in a recent article from
>> Giga Research. They recently opined on the issue. In short, they
>> feel heuristic/expert review and guideline following are to be
>> followed, rather than the collection of observed data
>[snip summary of articel]
>> Thoughts?
>
>Of course: that's what Giga specializes in (see their Web Site Score Card
>at: http://www.gigaweb.com/mktg/wssc/)! They would be shooting themselves in
>the foot if they said (in)formal usability testing yields better results
>than heuristics-based expert reviews.
>
>Peter
>--


Thanks for your note, Peter. Although the company where I work is a Giga subscriber (hence the reason I can't post the entire article--fari use restrictions, I suppose), I didn't knwo about their scorecard thingy. My experience and education also contradicts Giga's position. They feel that expert review and "good software design" obviates the need for any usability testing...and if done at all, informal (rather than formal) testing is sufficient.
Needless to say, I strongly disagree. HowEVER, the reason I brought this Giga article up is that many business leaders read Giga, rather than SIGIA-L, CHI-WEB, Norman, Nielsen, Wodtke, Garrett, Reiss, Wurman, and so on. So I think it's important for us to understand how the business leaders are forming opinions on--
* the importance of user experience
* the cost of designing and implementing tools to ensure a positive UX
* the value of assessing progress throughout the development process
and so on.
Good discussion....

joe