[Sigia-l] Testing your own sites

[Will Parker]

On Feb 4, 2007, at 1:48 PM, Andrew Boyd wrote:
> On 2/5/07, Will Parker <wparker at channelingdesign.com> wrote:
>
>> Seems to me one of the big tasks for people involved in usability
>> work is getting the client to understand and embrace the latter  
>> usage.
>
> Yes! :)
>
> If you can't sell it, it won't happen... you need to have the
> elevator/BBQ pitches, the presentations, the soft sell and the hard...
> all memorised so that you can swing into action at any time.

Well, there's the pitch to make the sale, but much more importantly,  
the lead usability people need to _train the designer and the  
client_, daily and hourly, in how to use the usability tool as part  
of their design process. Clueless clients will take more of your  
time, so creating clueful clients will make your life easier in the  
long run.

Furthermore, the time required to train the clients (whether in-house  
colleagues or actual external clients) should be considered in  
planning the time required to complete the project. After you've  
trained a client to take less of your time, you can adjust your bill  
rate to reward them.

About the 'usability as validation' meme:

I'm flummoxed whenever I see people advocating usability testing as  
[tacitly final] validation -- that indicates a level of disconnect  
between design, development and test that I luckily haven't  
encountered in my career to date. Either you've been working on  
usability issues and deciding the best path with reasonable client  
involvement since Day Zero, or your dev process is --- well, let's be  
charitable and say 'less than optimal'. Or 'totally FUBAR', in plain  
English.

- Will
Will Parker
wparker at ChannelingDesign.com

"The only people who value your specialist knowledge are the ones who  
already have it." - William Tozier