Yes, really. After all these discussions this dichotomy still lingers. It lingers on this list, it permeates the places I've worked, it keeps invisible barriers between me and people who sit just feet from me and my (UX) team. It will be something we will face for years. How? Because it _does_ take enlightenment to see through dichotomies. Knowledge of design, usability, technique or technology does not guarantee enlightenment. It takes humility, introspection, patience, discipline. Most people simply don't reach that. After all, most people in our society don't see the value in saving for tomorrow instead of spending it all today. How does something as subtle as seeing that design and usability are on a continuum rather than opposing poles or forces surprise us? Some people do reach a higher level, and are willing to make a community that supports everyone for the betterment of the entire practice.
We often walk away from client or team meetings with disgust or mocking them because they 'don't get it'. We expect those clients or coworkers - who might come from marketing, engineering, whatever - to attain immediate enlightenment and understand that people have to 'interact' with their business, they can't just be customers who are sold to anymore. Interaction Design seems like an awfully complicated way to just put something on the web, you know. And, Usability seems like a further investment - a Cadillac plan - above design that is surely too time-consuming and 'sciencey' to be right for our 'first-to-market' project. Many days, I feel like an insurance salesman who could justify and rationalize every universal life plan s/he offered (requires evaluating abstract, future circumstances), but knew that most people would walk away with term life simply because it's cheaper (a concrete, binary choice). It takes a heavy dose of perspective to understand that the more advanced plan is better for you, and to differentiate the circumstances in your future that necessitate one or the other. Primitive thinking in our own backyard?: Reading this list at first frustrated me because so many in this field could not see through these dichotomies. And, here I thought we were brothers-in-arms, if you will. But, it's just like any other population with a rough bell-curve distribution of understanding. Only a few have achieved - or care to achieve - a point at which they no longer fight or argue, but a point where they can simply see the right direction to go. The distractions fall away for them. (You know, "Use the Force, Luke," and all that.) I appreciate the list's activity for exposing me to the primitive and the enlightened, and reminding me that they are not separate things - they are parts of the field in which I work. I, too, am driven react with primitive anger to situations I find myself in, and I definitely want to learn to not act it out, but to find the right direction to go. I sometimes find myself operating just as I'd wish by realizing the thoroughly positive impact it has. This list lets me learn vicariously. (The longer a discussion, the higher the likelihood of both primitive and enlightened arguments.) Waxing philosophical: (read on at your own risk for annoyance) Someone on the UTest list once asked which books were most valuable to our usability careers. The top of my list was "Siddartha" by Herman Hesse, "Before the Court"/"Auf dem Gesetz" by Franz Kafka, and "A Practical Guide to Usability Testing" by Dumas & Redish. Siddartha for the lesson on rarity and delicacy of enlightenment. Before the Court for the lesson on the facade that is bureaucracy. Practical Guide for the lesson on continually improving product and process. Siddartha teaches you that life is always challenging, even after attaining englightenment you live in the cycle of Samsara. Or, in our terms, no matter how good your work is, no matter how smart you are, you will find yourself in utterly disgusting situations of being frustrated by dealing with "other people" and these mundane problems of life. And, that those moments, too, pass. To remember your skills and talents, and they will keep you going and give you something to focus on beyond the frustration. Kafka's 1.5-page essay on bureaucracy shows you that the corporation and it's representatives might look like fearsome opponents, but that it's mostly just a bluff and you've gotta take your shot. A great way to maintain confidence when working inside or for the F100. Dumas & Redish had an excellent statement that usability is not just about improving the quality of the product, but it is also about improving the process by which those products are made. There is the art - the daily, relentless practice to make things better no matter the opposition or disinterest. So, you don't just do one good project and ascend to the throne. You will have to work harder at each level if you want to progress. If don't want to work harder, you can stay at the level you're at, but expect to be there until you take initiative. (Groundhog Day?) Thanks for calling this to attention. I love the meta-conversations. - Jay On Sat, Aug 29, 2009 at 10:03 PM, J. Ambrose Little <[email protected] > wrote: > Jared, Andrei, Charlie, et al, > > I'm writing as someone working full time in the software industry for over > 10 years and a hobbyist/wannabe for most of my life. I came up through the > ranks with no formal computer, science, or design education. The only > degree I hold is in history and humanities. I was a developer and > architect > for most of my career. > > So why the heck am I presuming to speak up amidst you juggernauts of > usability and design? > > Because I'm someone who really cares about making great software and making > the software industry in general better. > > Look, I'm here because it seems pretty obvious to me that the best way to > make software better is through a focus on people *and* good design. The > last 8 years of my career have been a steady enlightenment in that > direction > that all started with a rather silly incident involving some terribly > amateurish visual design. (I guess my humanities background predisposes > me, > too.) > > Anyways, the point is that from my perspective (i.e., not having much > vested > interest in UCD, Usability, HCI, Design, IA, and so on), you're setting up > an unnecessary (and damaging) dichotomy. It's not understanding people OR > designing. It's both. > > Even software devs (those arch nemeses!) have figured out that involving > the > actual people who will use their software in the design process helps them > to make more successful software. They also have figured out that being > able to iterate and try different things helps them come to better > solutions. These two principles underly what is broadly known as Agile. > And if you want an amorphous term, man, Agile beats UCD any day! > > The way I see it, the people advocating UCD/UX and the people advocating > Agile both see the light--they see the way to make this stuff better. > They're coming at it from different directions but essentially marching to > the same drum. In the last few years they've been sidling up to each other > and saying, hey, we can learn from and work with each other and achieve our > common goals. > > Now you got folks coming alongside, saying, "no, you silly people don't get > it, it's Design!" Well, of course it's design! It's never not been > design. > You say, no Dee-sign, with a BIG D. We say, okay, what the heck do you > mean by that? And you (IMO) have slowly been articulating it in ever > clearer ways. > > Now, I have gone from more skeptical to almost a believer in Dee-sign, but > still, I don't see it as some magic or something antithetical to Agile or > UX. I see it as complimentary. Because all along we've known we gotta do > good design--that's what the frak we've been trying to do. So you have a > different background and discipline, and maybe it's better. Yeah, I think > so. > > So again, from my perspective, you have the UX folks coming in and helping > the somewhat floundering software developers do better in understanding > people and you have the Design folks coming in and helping the somewhat > floundering software developers do better in design. > > Awesome! More, smart, educated, passionate, and talented people marching > together. Now what heck are we arguing about?? > > -a > ________________________________________________________________ > 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 > -- ------------------------------------------------------------ Jay A. Morgan Director, UX at Gage twitter.com/jayamorgan linkedin.com/in/jayamorgan ------------------------------------------------------------ ________________________________________________________________ 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
