Comments on: That Usability Guy

By: Jin

Jin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:40:06 +0000

Toby, thank you for the comment. I agree with you, most of the gurus I’ve met and worked with, were more about selling themselves to get more business than having any substance. And sadly, management buy their BS. I’ve had doubts about usability specialists before until I worked with a good one.

By: Toby

Toby — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 06:54:10 +0000

Interesting.. I have yet to work with a really good usability guy (or a really good “guru” of any stripe – from Agile Methodology specialists to Usability to Marketing Strategy Coordinators…). Those that I’ve worked with have been 20% substance backed up with 80% hot air. It’s good to know at least that there are real experts out there, people who care about what they’re doing more than simply making a buck for giving a motivational speech every now and then.

By: Jin

Jin — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:29:36 +0000

@Antti, not every team will have a Bob. Having a usability person has a lot of to with the size of the firm/company, the budget, the awareness of usability and many other factors. The smaller the team and project, the more of a luxury having a Bob becomes, IMO. None of my past jobs had a Bob.

BTW, are you related to Michael Bolton??

By: Antti

Antti — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:20:30 +0000

Remember the time when there were “webmasters?”

They were the early adopters of MS FrontPage, PaintShop Pro, and clip-art galleries. (I know NOBODY can forget the animated gif of a digging construction worker with a caption “page under construction.”) Back in those days web professionals were jacks of all trades and masters of none – which showed.

We’re seeing more and more specialized roles in the industry and in my opinion it is a sign of maturity. The truth is that a team with Bob the Usability Guy, Carrie the Coder(ette) and Drew the Designer beefed up with Quentin the QA person working together will always yield output higher than just the sum of its parts.

There is no doubt that having a Bob is integral to the success of any larger web project, but like you mentioned in your post, the profession/position is quite young. That’s why I am curious to see how it will weather the economic turmoil we’re seeing right now. With the most abstract role and the least tangible output, are the Bobs the first ones to go when times start getting rough?

On a lighter note, I must say this:

Jin, I am happy that you blog about web design and not software development. Otherwise I could only think of “Bob” from the perspective of Office Space.

By: Jin

Jin — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:41:33 +0000

@Steven, thank you for your comment.

I think most web designers who are worth their paychecks know a great deal about usability. However, certified usability specialists go beyond that. They study the proven statistics of how users really use or navigate through a web site or web applications. Of course these stats don’t always reflect every site use, but it paints a close picture.

They also know about accessibility more in depth. Like how the screen readers REALLY reads a web site. Just some examples.

By: nortypig » The Value of a Usability Expert

nortypig » The Value of a Usability Expert — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:34:55 +0000

[...] not until you work with a usability expert that you can really appreciate the value of having them on your team (graphic designers and [...]

By: Steven Clark

Steven Clark — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:34:37 +0000

One caveat of my last comment being I am probably not a usability expert. But I have a strong knowledgebase around that area – interface design, usability, accessibility – that seems to often be missing. Its the why behind many questions.

OK I’ll shut up now and get to work. Thanks.

By: Steven Clark

Steven Clark — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:28:40 +0000

Is that what they meant about my lack of persona (fades out to “l hygeine”)?

Seriously, too true. I said to my last manager, when asked to put a page forward to him about my skillset that could be used by the other managers. I said, the problem is that nobody can see that they have the problem, therefore the need. It’s not until I do something to improve things that they get it.

And I’m not a Bob, by a long shot.

The value of asking those questions and considering the user experience is invaluable. And get people involved. The standard process had been to listen to the client for 2 hours and flick it over to the graphic designer who sent requests to programmers for functionality.

Excellent post.

By: sandi

sandi — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:40:09 +0000

I’m not sure about that Bob guy….

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:11:54 +0000

I’ve met Bob, and I concur – he’s a great guy!