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

[Susan Moller]

-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Moller [mailto:spaulsen at 9flights.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 25, 2005 11:33 AM
To: SIGIA-List
Subject: RE: The Answer (finally) (Was [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.

It depends somewhat on the number of projects you have and what stage of
development they are in.  I was a consultant IA/Interaction designer for 11
years and have worked on very large, very high quality web-based apps with a
team of 4 UE team members (1 ID, 1 IA, 1 Designer, and 1 Interface
Developer) to a ratio of 8 developers.  I have worked on medium sized, high
quality web-based apps with a power team of 3 people total whose experience
all overlapped and who all wore multiple hats: an Interaction Designer/PM,
an Interface Developer/Java/J2EE, and a Java/System Architect.  And I've
worked on a giant content-based website with a blended design
agency/client/ue consulting crew that had about 10 UE people on it, and wow,
what a freaking disaster.  Frankly I preferred working in the team of 3.  We
were quite powerful and agile, and the other two guys were brilliant -
absolutely brilliant.  The three of us were able to spend quality time with
the users as needed, and we were able to quickly understand their needs with
no middlemen.  In the end, the users of those systems were very happy with
the products we created for them.

Now I'm internal to a large financial services analysis and publishing
company, and the only UE person, at that.  There are approx. 16 software
developers on the projects I am covering.  Given the number of projects my
company has going, their relative stages in the development process, and the
other people who "do wireframes" and are "in charge of the interfaces", I
think it would probably take a team of 3-4 really good Interaction
Designers, 6 IAs (to both do new development and also to maintain and manage
taxonomies and meta-data), and 3-4 Interface Developers.  That team would
probably ebb a little bit once the really big development chunks are out of
the way, and a smaller team could serve to cover QA of the systems through
development and rollout, as well as ongoing research into usability and
success and covering enhancements in the future.

In deciding your UE staffing needs, you must also consider the type of app
or site.  If it's a portal and you get lot of out-of-the-box functionality
with your technology solution you'd need a different mix than, say, if it's
a custom web front-end on a business critical, proprietary  database.

I don't have a magic ratio for you, but I would stress quality over
quantity.  A couple of good and multi-dimensional IAs or IDs will go very
far in assuring a high level of end-user experience.

Susan Paulsen Moller