[Sigia-l] Coat Hanger Usability

[Scott Nelson]

On Monday, March 1, 2004, at 11:35  AM, Lyle_Kantrovich at cargill.com 
wrote:
> For example, what is the basic measure of
> "usability" of a BMW car?

Pet peeve: this industry (the entire tech industry as well) needs to 
come up with a better example than the automobile.

It seems like people quickly forget the extensive period of instruction 
that goes into driving a car: this is not an example of a seamless 
system - if it were truly "usable" we wouldn't need the extensive 
series of licensing procedures & penalties that exist around the world, 
nor would the automobile be amongst the deadliest man-made machines in 
the world.

> The question is: How usable is it as
> WHAT, FOR WHOM, and WHEN?

<snip>

> Broaden "cost" to include multiple facets, not just monetary, and you
> get another reason cost is intertwined with the success of a design.
> Cost can include: space, bandwidth, time, people, environmental impact,
> physical harm, stress, productivity, etc., etc.

<snip>

> is ignoring the fact that cost has everything to do with
> determining how usable something should ultimately be and a lot to do
> with how happy a user will be with the product.

No: "cost" has to do with whether or not people will use a product in 
the first place: it has no direct impact on how easy a product is to 
use once its in my hands.

Project management (or product management) is about balancing costs 
with a final product: if you have a dual role that's fine but really, 
at the end of the day, usability is about balancing needs vs. usage - 
basically it's this:

What does this product need to do? --> How can I make this as easy to 
accomplish as possible?

On the topic of a dual role, it's important not to confuse job TITLES 
with job ROLES: a lot of creative directors think they are information 
architects - this is not true, although on many projects a creative 
director may fill an Information Architect role. This does not diminish 
the title of Creative Director (every Creative Director I know is very 
sensitive about the seniority of their role...maybe I know a 
particularly paranoid group, including my ex-) nor does it 
automatically elevate the title of Information Architect (who, IMHO, in 
many cases should have a more senior role than they are too often 
assigned.)

You rightly point out that if you broaden cost the impact shifts, 
however this conversation was about the economic cost only. Usability 
is absolutely concerned with costs such as stress, physical harm, time 
etc. - but that's a different conversation.
--
Scott Nelson
scott at penguinstorm.com