In the first of this series, I tried to persuade you that your computer was human-illiterate, and we defined and discussed usability, memorability, and learnability. In the second, we discussed Tognazzini’s Paradox: how the hardest part of designing an effective program is often what seems the most trivial—sometimes simply a matter of changing a single word. In the third, we talked about design integrity, simplicity and abstraction. Now, let’s address “discount usability testing.”
When we talk about “usability testing” most of us think about expensive consultants, fancy labs with one-way mirrors and video recorders, and the like. Yes, usability testing can be done in such labs. Yes, companies like Microsoft have permanent million-dollar user testing labs.
But if you design, program or provide feedback on any portion of an ED information system – learn how to do some discount usability engineering. Usability guru Jakob Nielsen says: “I advise clients to avoid design agencies that are too arrogant to include user testing in their project plans.” For that matter, if you are a user: do some quick and dirty usability testing to document on how bad (or how good) your system is – either to demand a better system, or to demand that the vendor provide usability updates! Read the rest of this entry »
