[Sigia-l] Information Architecture and Usability Professions

[Ziya Oz]

Bill Killam:
 
> First, there's that silly assertion that usability [people] are sitting in
> judgment of design.

Of course, they are. At the end of a usability test someone has to interpret
the results and make a judgment/recommendation to the person who hired them.
What's often galling is that usability people not only make a judgment (as
to whether the design works or not) but often go ahead and recommend ways to
correct it (if it doesn't work), a process of design they are likely not
well versed with.

> Following that logic, we should eliminate QA altogether.  And movie critics
> shouldn't review movies unless they are directors.  And art critics should
> review art unless they are artists.  And so on.

What you don't seem to grasp here is that movie/art critics are NOT employed
by the movie studios/art galleries. They are independent parties passing
judgment. Usability people ARE employed directly by the businesses that sell
the product/service. A more fitting analogy would have been if studios would
formally invite critics into the editing room AND pay them to judge and
re-edit the movie BEFORE they release it to the public. I'll let you figure
out just how silly that would be. The creative core (directors, DPs, actors,
etc) wouldn't work with such a toll-keeper between them and the audience.
 
> "the employer evaluates the "usability dudes'" work.

How? Divine intervention? This is absurd because the employer, in the vast
majority of cases, is a business man/woman who signs the checks and has as
much design and UX evaluation sense as a mollusk.

Usability people have positioned themselves as the gateway between the
design and the users, as the final arbiters of suitability. Yet we don't
have formal methods to judge *their* effectiveness and competency. The claim
of some amorphous notion of an "employer" judging them is at best a cop out.

----
Ziya

Usability >  Simplify the Solution
Design >  Simplify the Problem