[Sigia-l] Usability testing into the dustbin?

[Listera]

"Mitchell Gass" wrote:

> I have never been involved with any usability testing where we weren't
> surprised by what we learned.

Then I guess you never worked at Microsoft. :-)

For example, for longer than a decade, every single time MS designed an OS
or an application they made a conscious design decision to ignore or
downplay security (which impacts user-level functionality and behavior on so
many levels) and favored features and other considerations. It's impossible
to be a software developer at MS with functioning brain cells and still be
surprised after a usability testing over security for IE, Outlook, ActiveX,
etc.  

Their 'testing' can be characterized as: release software, watch user
reactions, if there are complaints, first ignore/deny them, then when
there's enough pressure, release limited patches, wait for next cycle. This
is been going on for years.

Their security model is fundamentally broken but, obviously, they could (and
still can) fix it if they wanted to. None other than Bill Gates thinks this
has to change, but so far there's not much evidence that they are
succeeding.

You could eliminate this cycle almost in its entirety by adopting "security
by design" as opposed to "security by release and wait," which amounts to
experimenting on users. You don't need user-level testing if your
application design allows multiple and obvious free entry paths for viral
agents. 

In designing web apps similar patterns emerge. Good app designers know where
the pitfalls are for the back button, session management, shopping carts,
login, personalization, bookmarking, drilldowns, etc.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba