[Sigia-l] User Test Cost - Does this sound reasonable?

[Christopher Gomez]

Listera wrote:

> It's hard to disagree with this. But my question is, why are developers
> getting involved in usability issues to begin with? The fundamental 
> problem
> here is not that they don't quite understand usability issues (they don't
> have to since they are programmers after all), 


I think it was a developer who said this line,  "Oh <fill this in with 
your own expletive> , these tele-type machines are a pain in the wrong 
end. Why don't we replace these stupid punch cards with a 'command 
prompt' on a cool box with a cathode ray tube in it, instead"?
And that was the first usability case study in the history of computing 
sciences.

And to say there weren't any designers then to figure that out, would be 
untrue. There were many qualified designers/artists around. Designers 
(architects, artists, commercial print/packaging artists, comic book 
artists, product designers, etc.) just never took programming and the 
tech industry seriously. I suppose now the people who've been in the biz 
longer (or feel that they've been continuing the tech heritage longer 
than any) feel compelled to teach those who're still green (i.e. the 
tech designers) a thing or two about tech products/solutions and get 
them to see it their way. It's really an ego thing. And in many ways 
it's a good thing because then people would actually sit down, like Lisa 
said, and work on a better solution. I mean, afterall their egos 
depended on it.



//-- Snip --// Listera //
but that they are disputing another professional (designer) whose jobs 
it is to know these things.
//-- Snip --// Listera //

I think she sort of replied that here with the snippet below...

//-- Snip --// Lisa deBettencourt //
See, the thing is, since the UI is so visible, everyone has a hand in 
it. It's not uncommon for many
team members to believe they know what's best for the design/product and 
that they can predict usability issues.
//-- Snip --// Lisa deBettencourt //


So you're going to here a lot more people grumbling, complaining, etc 
about why this doesn't work or that doesn't achive what it's suppose to 
do and so on. Eventually it's not the developer... it's not the 
designer. It's the team.

- Christopher Gomez

How do you improve the usability of underwear?