May 26th, 2008, posted in Usability, User Experience
I know it’s been over 2 months since I started part one in this series, but my life has been very busy, but I’ve had many opportunities to think about this and other issues at CHI2008 and in my work.
I’ve been doing some consulting and usability work for medium-sized organization. Part of that work has included some usability work, and I have tried desperately to incorporate some UX ideas and methodologies as well, with very limited success.
What seems to be the theme in all that I do is that usability ends up being post design phase work, and UX MUST be part of the design phase, preferably in the earliest conceptual phases in order for it to really work. As an outside consultant or evaluator it is almost impossible to implement any meaningful UX ideas or methodology no matter what phase of the work you are brought into if the organization is not open to it and/or does not understand the power of it.
Almost everyone has a vague idea of what usability is, and it is generally thought to be positive, although there are a lot of misconceptions about it. It is easy enough to run usability tests at all phases of design and implementation and have significant ROI on it in terms of improvement of the product, bottom line (if applicable), and client satisfaction.
So what is usability in the age of UX? I guess the easy answer for me is that it is that usability is part of 2nd wave HCI, and UX is part of 3rd wave HCI. Those of us working in 3rd wave cannot forget about 2nd wave ideas and methodology, as they are vital, but the promise of 3rd wave is that there is so much more beyond it.
I’ll post more on being a Luddit later (from part 1).
May 8th, 2008, posted in Research, Usability, User Experience
From UXMatters
This is an interview from a new publisher who is printing books in the UX and Usability area. They conducted a Usability study on a book, yes a printed book. It just goes to show what you think you know about how people use and own things is not usually true. User studies of all kinds will give you valuable data on all these kinds of things. Does anyone think Amazon did this with the Kindle? Some maybe, clearly not a lot.
March 13th, 2008, posted in HCI, Usability, User Experience
I am seriously considering applying for an internship with the well-known (at least in HCI circles) Nielsen/Norman group, I have read much of what both of Nielsen and Norman have to saw about usability, and Nielsen in particular is very anti web 2.0. Well more particularly web 2.0 for no reason. It must add value for your user. Don’t just “go 2 point oh” because it’s cool, but because it makes sense for your organization and especially for your users.
Because newer technologies are… get ready… newer they are untested and therefore best practices and usability standards have not yet been established. As an HCI consultant as well as a designer, what do I say to a client who wants to use some of these newer technologies?
It seems to me that most of us, including myself are technofetishists. Is that a word? I mean we are so enamored with the latest gadget, upgrade, iphone, ianything, graphics card, scripting language, platform independent language, open source environment, that we are totally willing to bend over backwards and accept things that make us do terrible things. Things that are terrible in terms of usability, the environment, and the rabid consumerism that is already so evident in the western world (and growing in other places too, don’t worry I won’t leave you out developing world and asia).
So usability in the age of UX, is it simply that we need to “focus on the user and all else will follow”? Do we need to a little more luddite?
To be continued
