In the past few months I've run into quite a few designers, studios, developers, etc. who have begun offering Usability services to their clients. However after talking to them for a while it becomes clear that they really don't know what Usability is (they've never conducted a usability test, are unfamiliar with many common best practices, don't have any training, and so on and so forth...). Instead it would seem that they have picked up on the importance of usability and have included it in their services to better promote themselves to clients.
I've also noticed that most of these individuals I've spoken to mistake Usability for a set of logical conventions. Something like "button A goes in the top left corner because thats where it would logically go..." or "module B should look like this because most sites do it that way..." They forget that while many usability best practices may conform to logical thinking, the user's expectations are what matter and if that differs from what you believe is logical, well... you need to make adjustments. So I ask you: Is this the price we pay for growing popularity of Usability and User-Centered Design? Have you noticed other groups doing similar things? Does it bother you as much as it does me? -adam ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
