[Sigia-l] Information Architecture and Usability Professions

[Jared M. Spool]

At 08:28 PM 9/5/2006, Ziya Oz wrote:

>Jared M. Spool:
>
> > You can't do this with post-design inspections and tests.
>
>You need to broadcast that to the vast majority of people in your business.

It ain't *my business.* I'm a researcher running a think tank. I claim no 
ownership rights on this business.

> > Again, this is a 1980's notion of usability you're referring to. Here, in
> > the new millennium, we don't see ourselves as arbiters...
>
>Did I miss the memo? :-)

yah. So has the UPA. (An opinion of mine which has made me persona non 
grata at the annual conference for years now.)

In my opinion, the UPA has worked hard to maintain a status quo of not 
advancing the field in any meaningful way. And those of us who have been 
working at advancing the field have been marginalized in the process.

So, I think way to many practitioners don't realize they are being left 
behind. It's a shame.

> > Usability > Inform the design process
>
>I'll add that to my sig when usability people are hired by designers. :-)

And you're not hiring them because...? :-)

>On a serious note, I would like the usability process move much closer to
>the design process and get integrated, as opposed to remaining as a
>postfactum testing/validation phenomenon, the way it *still* is today in the
>main.

That's changing. In our research we're seeing more and more evidence of 
that integration, with great results. I think it's going to become more 
mainstream, assuming the forces-that-be don't get in the way and try to 
hold it back.

>There was a time when businesses thought slapping a "skin" on a developers
>take constituted application design. We had demonstrably disastrous results
>and, I think, we passed that stage in general. I don't think we've outgrown
>the usability=postfactum validation stage at all. I think you're being way
>too optimistic that we have.

I think you're not seeing what's happening on the advancing side of the 
front. To use the oft-overused Crossing The Chasm metaphors, the early 
adopters have long since moved past postfactum validation. Organizations 
like Yahoo, eBay, Fidelity, Lands' End, Autotrader, Shopzilla, Washington 
Mutual, Wachovia, NewCityMedia, Molecular, and many, many others are long 
past this and doing very cool things on the user experience front.

It's happening. And it's happening more and more.

Now if we can only stay out of our own way.

Jared


Jared M. Spool, Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering
510 Turnpike Street, Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
978 327-5561   jspool at uie.com  http://www.uie.com
Blog: http://www.uie.com/brainsparks