The Answer (finally) (Was [Sigia-l] Internal usability/UE teams)

[Lyle_Kantrovich at cargill.com]

Adamya, 

As an "internal" myself, I can sense where your question might be coming 
from...and I feel your pain.

I don't have any magic ratios, but some factors that should be 
considered based on the context/company:

A. Type of industry the company is in.  (e.g. High tech, software, 
medical devices, office supplies, food, commodity transportation, 
etc.)...yes, they can all *use* UE folks.

B. What's going on with the company.  E.g. Are new/better products key 
to their success?

C. How projects are conducted.  Do they have a mature process that UE 
can fit into, or is it "wild and wooly?"

D. Outsourcing...is it an option?  While you might need 8 UE folks for 
THIS project, maybe you don't need that many on an ongoing basic, so you 
might want to staff the peak demand from the outside.

E. What's the level of UE work needed on the product to raise the UE 
quality to the desired/acceptable level.  Are you working on the 
internal Law department's intranet site, the company's customer-facing 
web site, the company's core product, a complex software tool, a medical 
device (that also requires FDA approval), or the next space shuttle?

If you have the time, you might think about doing a comprehensive, 
global study.  If you do, you will find that all companies need exactly 
(2A+3B*(.25C^2)+5D-7E)*100Q UE professionals where A,B,C,D and E all the 
polynomial quantifications of the factors above, and Q is a semi-random 
number almost, but not entirely unlike something between 0 and infinity. 
 (Yes, some on this list might get headaches just thinking about it, but 
it's simple to prove to any qualified three-year old monkey using an 
Etch-a-Sketch and a couple bananas.)

If you can't accurately measure all the factors above, you might try 
"benchmarking" a bit...ask folks how many people they have, what they 
work on, and how they are valued...it'll help you get UE more 
established and valued at your company.  Yes, I know that's what you're 
really trying to do here, but "here" isn't even a real place...which 
means you have to question the existence of anyone who's "here"...so get 
serious about it and quit asking great questions in places that don't 
exist.  :)

Best of luck getting UE established in your real place.  

Lyle
----
Lyle Kantrovich
User Experience Director, Cargill
Cargill: http://www.cargill.com/

My Blog: Croc O' Lyle - http://crocolyle.blogspot.com/ 


Disclaimer: My silly attitude does not in any way represent any kind of 
silly attitude at my employer.  I wouldn't even attempt to try to 
represent that.  Oh, and please disregard that second to last paragraph.



-----Original Message-----
From: adamya at gmail.com [mailto:adamya at gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 3:57 PM
To: listera at rcn.com
Cc: sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Internal usability/UE teams


> > I am especially interested in the ratio of information architects, 
user
> > experience/interaction designers and software developers required in
> > organizations so that an excellent level of end-user experience is 
assured in
> > projects and products.