STC Usability SIG Newsletter
Usability Interface

Letter to the Editor about  "Crisis in the Profession"

I wish to respond to your article about "Crisis in the Profession" (www.stcsig.org/usability/newsletter/0210-crisis.html). My comments are based on some personal experience.

In your list of points delineating where you felt the usability profession has failed to make its case, point one asks," I put this question to my wife who, as an academic, has an inside view of one the most likely sources for such a study. It appears that CIS (Computer and Information Sciences) and MIS (Management Information Systems) departments within universities are often at war with each other over curriculum issues. Perhaps the studies are discouraged in one discipline because it would involve the other. It certainly seems unlikely that collaboration would exist.

As to the issue of making the case for usability’s return on investment, I fear that it is the software industry itself that presents the biggest barrier. I became interested in usability as a User Interface/Web Designer. I came to user interface/web design from the profession of graphic design. Originally, like many designers, I was on the opposing side of "those usability people." But, within the last year, I began to see the merit of the usability argument. I also recognized how usability issues in software and on the web mirrored legibility issues in graphic design. In my early professional career, trends in graphic design had moved to a "fractured" approach. Graphic design had become part of the post-modernist, deconstructionist movement. The low, to me, was attending a much anticipated AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) lecture, and hearing a renowned designer explain the virtues of making the printed page harder to read, as if the amount of cognitive struggle was proportionally equivalent to the amount of reader interest. I decided then that the "movers and shakers" of graphic design were out of touch with the real world. My membership to AIGA expired and I did not renew it until years later. I decided the best way to effect change towards a reasonable approach was to try to add my voice to the organization by continuing to participate.

I am beginning to feel like the software industry (and web) is suffering from a similar kind of blindness.

Many years ago, when personal computers were exploding onto the scene, using software was an acquired skill. Like icing on the cake, it was that extra skill that could get you hired. Contending with a learning curve came with the territory. The software designers and developers created the system and the expectation was on the user learn it. Since that time, computers have become virtually ubiquitous in society. Computer software is being used in almost every aspect of business functionality. People who already have enormous demands in their professional careers must use software to accomplish their tasks. Using software is no longer just an additional skill, but part of the very core of their profession. With such a shift, the expectation should be on the software industry to make the software as intuitive and easy to use as a traditional "land line" telephone. Sadly, I see little evidence of this industry redefining its relationship with the users.

In meeting after meeting, I hear assumptions of what the users should already know and what they are expected to learn. The value of adding usability is sacrificed to adding new features to the product. Competitors add as well and the race to the moon of features is well underway. Software companies get locked into an endless cycle of making release deadlines with as many features as possible and usability gets placed on the back burner until "when we get the chance" finally comes. The end result is software user interfaces become overloaded. But, instead of recognizing the clutter, software companies euphemistically promote the upgrade as "robust." I have yet to see a software upgrade promotion say, "We added nothing new, we just made it much easier to use."

The IT bubble has burst. Software companies (the ones that remain) are virtually on the ropes. Yet, software "business as usual" paradigms from over a decade ago still persist. Like the cliché of the frog placed in water, slowly coming to a boil, the industry is facing disaster without recognizing it. In a flagging economy, users will not sacrifice their careers or, indeed, their businesses to a learning curve. It is up to those of us involved with usability to continue to be a voice, even if in the wilderness, for making software as easy to use as possible.

Your idea of getting usability groups together is commendable because resources need to be pooled. CHI2003 was held in April in Ft. Lauderdale. There were a few sessions on promoting usability. Yet, I saw no major effort in addressing how to shift the current business paradigm in either of the plenary sessions. With a conference of this scope, it would have been a great place to start. Sadly, I was unable to attend. I hope it was discussed, somewhere, at the conference.

- Jim Griesemer, User Interface/Web Designer.