[Sigia-l] Open Source Usability -- curable?

[Boniface Lau]

> From: Listera
>  
> Off-shoring is shifting business competition from backend
> development to frontend expertise in UI/UX. With the backend being
> commoditized (and server/bandwidth/storage prices plummeting), the
> battle shifts to who can get the user experience right.

The whole development process is being commoditized, not just the
backend. Way back couple years ago, the Alertbox "Offshore Usability"
already had the following observations:

    http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020916.html

OSU> one of the Intranet Design Annual 2002 winners was headquartered
OSU> in the United States, but hired a firm in India to design its
OSU> intranet.
[...]
OSU> The potential growth in offshore Web projects might present
OSU> opportunities for a niche industry in the U.S. and Europe:
OSU> Companies could establish usability labs that have no observation
OSU> rooms or test facilitators, but are capable of projecting test
OSU> sessions to offshore locations. 


Boniface