> I wasn't trying to say that being a usability professional is like being a > movie critic in terms of **specific** methods. I was using the movie > critic as one example of the age old debate as to whether being able to > critique, evaluate, measure, analyze a domain, bestows on one the ability to > design or create at an equally high level in that domain. My answer is no. > Well, then perhaps *communication* is the hardest element of all.
Re-reading everything you've written, up until these retractions / clarifications, you've been saying design professionals require more skill, talent, etc, and design is inherently more complicated or difficult somehow than Usability practice. Jared clearly disagrees with you. So do I. And it's not that common that Jared and I agree on something completely. Usability practice is very complicated, takes quite a bit of creativity, and very much requires both sides of your brain. You have to be able to collect, analyze, and communicate data in a very succinct fashion, at the very least, and also be able to deal with "those crazy users" all the time, read between the lines to understand the problems that lie beneath surface observations, and many other things. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Design is definitely a complex and oft-difficult exercise, and yes, some people are better at being designers while some are better at research and evaluation, etc. This does not mean that either profession is inherently more difficult or complicated than the other. More likely, it means you don't fully understand what a good Usability practitioner really does or how he does it. Visual design may look like "magic" to you, while Usability work apparently appears to lack anything magical, but I assure you, it's every bit as complicated a practice as design. It takes talent far beyond the skill and experience one depends upon, just like design does. Maybe it just isn't *interesting* to you and you're therefore unimpressed with the skill and talent involved. Regardless, you've said several times "I was only trying to convey ..." in an effort to clarify your original statements. This tells me you are most lacking in the area of communication. You may be a great designer - I have no idea - but you clearly have trouble communicating your ideas. A Usability professional has to communicate very well, and the good ones do. Perhaps this seems less than magical to you, but if you've ever been able to read a UIE report or an AlertBox article and walk away feeling wiser, it's because you've just read something by a great communicator. Communication is a lot more complicated than it looks. The ones who do it well make it seem easy. Those who do it poorly ... well, they find themselves having to say things like "I was only trying to convey ..." a lot. Without beating this to death, next time, just consider making sure you're making the point you wanted to make before you hit Send in the first place. The root cause of this whole debate, I think, has been a lack of good communication. -r- ________________________________________________________________ *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://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
