[Sigia-l] Usability Testing

[Todd Zaki Warfel]

On Jan 22, 2007, at 4:01 AM, Donna Maurer wrote:

> I don't need no 'usability people' to give me out-of-context,  
> impractical, unfeasible, inexperienced advice based on
> watching a very small number of people doing a leading set of  
> scenarios in some sort of learnability test...

First of all, it's a very slipper slope going down the road of "I  
don't need 'usability people...'" I suppose they don't need you  
either. What you need is better usability people, just like we need  
better designers. Great designers appreciate what a usability  
professional brings to the table - the ability to see failure or  
weakness in the design's ability to meet customer and business goals.

Likewise, a great usability professional appreciates design. They  
understand that there's more than the mere academic, theory-driven,  
lab approach to testing. They get that context is key to truly  
understanding the problem.

If your usability people are creating out of context, impractical,  
unfeasible, leading scenarios, then you're partially to blame. You  
should be involved in the script development of these tests. And if  
you're involved and they're still leading, well, then you share that  
responsibility.

Don't bitch about the problem. Fix it.

Cheers!

Todd Zaki Warfel
Partner, Design & Usability Specialist
Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully.
----------------------------------
Contact Info
Voice:	(215) 825-7423
Email:	todd at messagefirst.com
AIM:	twarfel at mac.com
Blog:	http://toddwarfel.com
----------------------------------
In theory, theory and practice are the same.
In practice, they are not.