Re: Usability - any experiences or processes to share?

[Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>]

Testing for usability is futile.

Usability belongs in the initial planning, and should not be some sort 
of "add-on". Instead, it is a method for preventing the huge amounts of 
wasted effort that go into creating software that never gets finished or 
that is rejected at beta by the customers or their users.

The result of running usability testing on an already-existing web app 
is often merely a redesign of the graphics, because no one understands 
(or wants to understand) that the application presents the wrong choices 
in the wrong order.

Presented incorrectly, usability engineering simply reveals management 
to be ignorant or stupid. Tech writers often see the far end of this bad 
process, when they hear the words, "I don't care what you've discovered. 
It's too late to change the interface now. You'll just have to document 
around it. That's what we pay you for."

For those interested, Jon Meads (jon * usability-architects.com) has a 
good handle on practical usability. Replace the * with an at sign.
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