[Sigia-l] Morae in UAT phase?

[Listera]

Susan Moller:

> Any other creative or innovative ideas about "automating" the usability
> testing process in ways that will facilitate acceptance of more rigorous UX
> involvement (i.e. during the requirements and design phases, when it's best
> to involve us) would be appreciated!

The way you framed the question is tricky.

If one could successfully "automate" usability testing, that is, generate
effective design by testing in retrospect, one wouldn't generally need
(good) designers. To the extent that owners and managers think "fix it in
the post" or "design by testing" is a panacea, they'd be reluctant to expend
resources on design. And in most corporate places they don't. So your desire
to be involved when it really counts (when product strategy is discussed)
would likely go unfulfilled.

To vulgarize the point: one couldn't go from Yahoo directories to Google
search simply by automating usability testing and finding more refined ways
to serve the same directory architecture. It would require much deeper
strategic design/business thinking, that's not easily articulated by user
requests or behaviors. I'll go further: just because an app "passes" UAT
doesn't mean it'll be successful.

I know no other method that's better than a designer physically observing
users and, when warranted, interacting with them with questions and
scenarios *while* the product is being designed. Anything else introduces
artificial barriers into the process and bureaucratizes it.

A common objection often cited here is that one rarely has the time,
resources, etc., for designers to do what they need to do. Granted. But the
remedy to that is not looking for half-way solutions like "design by
testing" but finding ways to get designers off the "procedural table" and
sit them at the "strategic table".

In other words, the problems is not that an app is badly designed or that a
user might be less than optimally efficient in finding something, but that
the app is falling short of meeting its business goals, failing to provide
competitive advantage, etc. Those who dispense with resources at
corporations are far more likely to listen to the latter arguments than
arrangement of pixels or workflows on the screen.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba