STC Usability SIG Newsletter
Usability Interface

Looking Forward to A New Year in Usability

By Karen Bachmann, Usability SIG Manager

I have read several recent articles about being brave when trying new activities and facing challenges. The first was "What It Takes to Be A Leader" in the Orlando chapter October newsletter. Mike Murray, the chapter president, encouraged readers to take the first step to become a leader. Soon after, several articles appeared in the health and fitness magazines I regularly read about how the authors had tried a new fitness activity—overcoming fears, excuses, and sometimes significant obstacles—and how their experiences gave them the courage and confidence to tackle challenges in other areas of their lives.

These articles on pursuing a new activity and facing down challenges made me think about the challenges facing us as usability advocates. From discussions on the Usability SIG discussion list and in other forums, many people still struggle to promote usability in their companies, to lead usability initial efforts, and to gain full support and recognition for the usability work they do. Such experiences can be discouraging. However, our more experienced peers often respond with stories of their own hard-won successes and advice for persevering against the barriers for success.

A common theme in most stories is that introducing usability into a company, or even just into your own technical communication work, is often a long-term effort. In my own experience, my first effort to introduce usability at my then employer took almost two years to move from a few isolated activities and providing occasional design advice to interface developers into a fully recognized user interface design role. When the role was formally established, many other projects wanted to include usability in their development plans. It was an experience where persistence paid off with a breakthrough in understanding the value of usability by managers and developers.

Another common factor in those with success stories is that they frequently have more, having gained confidence and experience in making usability efforts succeed. If you have a success story to share, please consider writing an article for Usability Interface or posting your experiences to the discussion list.

Of course, sometimes even the greatest effort may not produce wide-scale changes. If you are struggling to promote usability, perhaps the new year will bring that moment of breakthrough. If not, be heartened by the success stories of your fellows and keep learning new ways to succeed at any level in your organization. Do not discount the "small" victories. Changing even one programmer’s view of users and usability is a major achievement and gains you an advocate and collaborator.

Whether you are continuing to be the lone voice promoting usability or are just starting to recommend your company include usability in their projects, 2004 is already looking to be a good year to learn more about usability and to create your own success stories:

• Attending telephone seminars are a cost-effective way to learn from leaders in our profession. Seminars by Jean-Luc Doumont in January and by Whitney Quesenbery in February look at user interface design issues for the Web. See www.stc.org/seminars.asp for more information.
• Caroline Jarrett, Usability and Information Design stem manager for the STC annual conference in Baltimore, Maryland, has put together a great program of usability and information design sessions. Look for the conference program on the STC Web site and plan to attend the conference (May 9-12). See www.stc.org/51stConf/index.asp or her summary of the sessions in this issue for more information.
• Usability SIG business meeting at the conference, tentatively scheduled for Monday, 10 May, at 12:30, will be a time to plan activities. Attendees will have a chance to take leadership roles. Volunteering is an excellent way to learn new skills and to have those personal victories that may still elude us in our daily jobs.
• Ginny Redish, founder of the Usability SIG and mentor to many of us in STC, will present the keynote address "Yours, Mine and Ours: Connecting Ourselves and the Communities We Belong To" at the 2004 annual conference of the Usability Professionals Association in Minneapolis, Minnesota. See www.upa2004.org for more information.