[Sigia-l] Usability Testing comments from Giga

[Thomas Vander Wal]

Listera wrote:

>"Thomas Vander Wal" wrote:
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>>Hence, we test. 
>>We are professionals.
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>I have nothing to add to this formulation of equating professionalism with
>testing, other than challenging you to prove that you test every decision
>you make on every project you take. I doubt you would be able to complete a
>single project or your clients would tolerate it. I'm positive you tend to
>test concepts/approaches you are not sure of. The more expertise you gain,
>the less you will test.
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My error in lack of clarity.  Ziya initial statement you made is what 
triggered my response... "

We had several threads on this issue here over the past two years, so I
won't rehash it. But, if every decision an IA makes has to be tested, one
inevitably has to question the value brought to the table."

It seems that if we test or have to test our assumptions/hypothesis we 
have a credibility problem as a profession.  It is a long stretch to say 
that we should test everything we do (for clients that want that it may 
not be good to keep them unless they are patient and want to pay for all 
the testing).  But, similar to software development we can set tests 
that can set quantitative tests on such things as response times and 
stress testing.  Often we as IAs do test to show results and to better 
our own understanding of what we do.  In my case I would love to do more 
testing with users (one reason is it show the value of IA, and helps 
dispel myths) but it is not in the budget nor do we have the people to 
perform the tasks.  Our software development budget have testing, QC, 
and QA built in as the value of testing is seen there.  

I hope this less reactionary tone helps smooth things.

All the best,
Thomas

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