Trouble in Paradise: Problems Facing the
Usability Community
by John S.
Rhodes
Summary:
There are problems with usability and the usability community. This
article is my attempt to raise some of the most important and interesting
issues. In my opinion, usability as we know it is dying. It is outdated,
misunderstood, and it faces very serious challenges in web and software
development circles.
The list of doom:
1. Usability
professionals often just provide developers with another set of eyes. That
is, they are often effective only because they are offering a new
perspective. When they point out something "obviously" wrong,
others see that as an act of usability. That is not always the case. Merely
being on the outside, using fresh eyes, will yield some excellent results. I
think this is especially true if the usability professional is a consultant
because they are highly motivated to prove their worth. This doesn't mean
usability folks are greedy! Instead, I am merely pointing out that you don't
always need a usability team to point out new and interesting problems. Your
grandmother can often tell you why she can't navigate a web site if you are
willing to listen to her.
2. I've had
several arguments with people about how usability is different than quality
assurance. In particular, the argument comes down to this: Why can't
usability be built into the quality assurance (QA) process? I respond
that usability reaches back into a company farther than QA and that I focus
more on users than the technology. I have other arguments too, but the QA
folks state that, when QA is done right, users are in fact built into the
process. And, data about their activity is captured and analyzed. In other
words, many QA folks don't see how usability is any different than QA
itself. Whether this is true or not does not matter! You see, in many
organizations, the QA folks vastly outnumber the usability folks. Further,
usability professionals are often absorbed into the QA organization because
they seem to fit there pretty well.
3. People often
write me to tell me that I am full of shit. Experienced designers and savvy
project managers are often able to articulate usability principles very
well, and they get angry when it seems like I am divorcing usability from
development. They understand user-focused design, and they work hard to
ensure success for users. It makes them successful, so of course the good
ones do it. In many work environments, the central problem with usability
is that it is ignored. People understand what the goals are and they can
often act using usability testing methods. Thus, experienced designers and
project managers feel they don't need extra usability help. Interestingly,
the best folks really don't need much help. (But they might need some QA or
an extra set of eyes!)
4. Despite recent
things I have been told, doing usability day to day does not require
incredible amounts of brainpower. Before you get upset, let me explain.
Usability in the trenches, when you really get down to it, requires having
people around who have great attention, are compassionate about users, and
can listen. They best folks collect the best data and they are able to
provide stunningly good research. Yes, this often requires a lot of
education and a lot of training. But, there are so many simple and effective
usability techniques, that almost any moderately trained person can do
usability testing. Thus, developers can do research and they can produce
excellent results and greatly improve their work. It should blend into their
job in many cases and thus it goes away because it is added to the
development Borg.
5. Usability,
despite being focused on users, is not business friendly. For smaller
companies especially, it can be very expensive or impossible. Even the best
trained developers simply don't have time for usability. Now, we all know
they should be applying usability. But they don't, because it cuts into the
budget and into their development time. Theoretically, it shouldn't be this
way. I know that. Yet even when folks understand usability it doesn't fit
the development process. I can cry and moan about this all day but this
development fact kills usability: The first things to get cut in the
development process are documentation, testing, and usability. For a
company, this is a short term view and it is limited thinking. Especially
for smaller organizations, this is life in the trenches.
6. Time and again
I am forced to explain usability. I try every definition I can think of and
I use many examples. It doesn't work well. I've tried using "customer
experience" and that works rather well, but this just means that
"usability" is a dream. Let's face this reality. Usability is a
process, a product attribute, and a state of mind. It is defined by what it
is not (like
Canada). In short, usability is a confusing concept. I'd say that
it is damn confusing to folks that practice it.
7. I've been
looking high and low for new usability ideas, techniques, and methods. I see
few. Instead, I see a vast sea of problems mounting on the web. The common
practice is to throw developers at problems. Then, marketing folks cover up
the mistakes and the sales force is able to drive profits even higher. Now,
it would be great if new web-specific usability ideas emerged. But, they are
not. Trust me, I have looked. It is the same stuff from years ago. Don't get
me wrong, the tools work, and they work well, but they are not new. On the
other hand, new tools are coming out all the time for development. Why don't
we see this in usability? Well, that is obvious to me. Usability seems to
be dying as a separate profession and no one is really investing in it as a
discipline. I know that there are organizations (such as the UPA
and CHI-WEB) and
universities (e.g., Georgia Tech)
dedicated to usability, but they are focused on buggy whips.
8. The
usability community is small, and not very powerful. It is loud and
well-educated. The usability community is logical and many folks are able to
explain why usability is so important, but only to others in the community.
But the message is not getting out. There is not any real usability
marketing going on, and it gets a low proportion space in the trade
magazines. The group is highly trained and skilled, but there is not a
dominant figure head. Sure, we have Jakob
Nielsen, but he is hardly a poster child. Most folks have no clue who he
is, yet he has the highest profile of any usability professional. The
usability profession is incestuous and I have heard many stories about how
people not trained in psychology or usability are not offered jobs. They are
not part of the club. What hogwash! A review of usability job listings
indicates that many companies want you to have a Master's degree or higher.
No wonder the usability community is seen as being an extension of the
Ivory Tower (i.e., university oriented, research focused, and elitist).
Note that when you use "usability" as a search term, it turns up
QA folks, developers, and technical writers. In any event, where are the
leaders? (If I say Linux, you probably think Linus Torvalds. An analogous
association doesn't really exist in usability.)
9. How many times
have you heard that usability principles don't generalize well? My clients
require specific usability attention. There aren't enough generalized
rules. When there are style
guides, usability professionals often laugh at them because the advice
is too generic. They are also usually written by developers, for developers.
So, usability professionals criticize them to death and they are often
ignored. Further, you must do specific research because there are
so few generalized rules. Now, I know many usability folks are getting hot
with me about this. They'll claim that we know all kinds of things about
human perception,
and they'll talk about Nielsen's
heuristics, and Spool's
research. Sorry folks, but that ain't enough. Any good developer can eat
that stuff up in a few days. Spell out high order laws, and let's start
working on the details. If not, hang it up.
10. Any community
needing to justify
its existence is in trouble. 'Nuff said.
11. Usability
folks are often on the outside of projects. They are called in as hired guns
and they are often late to the show. Usability only holds the weakest
part of the corporate mindshare. Usability and business don't go hand in
hand in most cases because too many managers just don't get it or they don't
want to spend the money. I don't really like this, but simply using the word
"usability" makes manager's eyes glaze over. Can you say
deer-in-headlights? Even after explaining and justifying the value of
usability, and trying to explain how it is not QA, most managers think
developers are doing usability. The mindshare is basically not there and I
have not seen it increase at all in the last few years. For a variety of
reasons, business decisions do not wait for usability. In fact, as I have
stated, there is a perception that usability gets in the way of development.
That is a perception that kills usability.
12. Speaking of
developers, they often dislike usability folks. Let's be honest about this.
As Curt Cloninger pointed out over at AListApart, designers
and usability professionals don't get along. The usability community
should be worried about its image, and the article you are reading right now
should wake you up. We make designers angry. We have data, they have
anger. There are many angry designers out there. There are many, many more
designers than usability professionals. The usability crowd is loud but
flaccid, and it is a minority. If it ever came down to a war, the usability
community would lose because the numbers are against us. Instead of working
harder to get along with developers, I often hear usability people complain
about how developers and designers just don't "get it". Too often
the problems are well explained but no action is taken. This often happens
on Slashdot where geeks complain
about Microsoft, the U.S. Patent Office and politicians. They like to talk a
lot, but they don't do much to makes changes.
13. I've been
asked to answer this question: If you had to decide to spend money on
server uptime or usability, what would you do? Invariably, I say that
server uptime is more important. For some companies, server downtime costs
millions of dollars per hour. We're talking real numbers here, that are easy
to calculate. Can the same be said of usability? On Maslow's
Hierarchy of Needs, usability is near the top, in the self-actualization
area. Most companies can't even put together a stable server environment, so
why should we expect them to care about usability? Despite claims I have
heard, usability is not a business necessity. It can yield a key competitive
advantage, but let's face it, slow servers will kill a business faster than
poor usability.
14. Usability is
often about generating or fighting Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt
(i.e., FUD).
As a usability professional, I know that I must position usability as a
business necessity. I claim that usability makes web sites shine and if you
don't take it into consideration, you are more likely to fail. I try to talk
about the good aspects of usability, but there is no sizzle in that.
15. Here is an
important fact : The better you do usability, the less it is understood,
and the less value it seems to produce. Imagine that you make a problem
go away. Who notices? No one. It is human nature to bitch and to complain.
If things are going well, you don't think about them. If your car is in
great working order, you probably don't think much about it. Oh sure, you
care that it gets you from Point A to Point B, but you don't really care
how. But, when it breaks down, you really care. The same can be said of
usability. In many cases, the better you do it the less people care because
you solved the problem. And, it seems like voodoo.
16. For a
community focused on research, usability produces very little useful
research. Yes, there is the ever useful HCI
Bibliography, but that is a scary place for developers. Does this mean
developers are stupid? Not at all. Instead, this indicates to me that there
is not enough good research available for developers. I'm talking about easy
to understand, easy to use research. Research results for the masses to
absorb. While our research helps the usability community (when it is not
proprietary and hidden away), it rarely helps managers, designers, or
developers. It is obscure. Why aren't there more reports available? If it is
because the costs are too high, then that is yet another reason why
usability is on its last leg.
17. Imagine that
you are a CEO. Now, suppose your company is facing rough times. What staff
will you cut? Finance or operations? No, probably not. What about marketing?
Sure. Usability? Huh, what is that? Of course you will kill it. In down
times, usability is easy to kill. It is also a huge target for the
beancounters (i.e., accountants).
There is a lot
more I could say but this should be sufficient to get people talking. For
example, I could talk more about how boring usability is to most people,
that it isn't Flash, and that
it is perceived to be mere common sense.
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