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July 04, 2005
Usability: Empiricism or Ideology?
Despite these differences, the fundamental approach of usability and harder sciences is the same: conclusions and recommendations are grounded in what is empirically observed in the real world. The job of usability is to be the reality check for a design project and -- given human behavior -- determine what works and what doesn't.
When taking the empirical approach, you must be unyielding and always report the truth, no matter how unpopular. If something works easily, say so. If something will cause users to leave, say so. The only way to improve quality is to base decisions on the facts, and others on your team should know these facts.
In contrast, when viewing usability as an ideology, you must be willing to compromise. Sometimes decisions must be made that will lower the design’s usability quality, either because of limited time and budget or because of trade-offs with other desirable qualities. Of course, project managers can only make good trade-offs when they know the facts about the design elements that help or hurt users. It's the role of the empirical approach to supply those facts.
Posted by Don at July 4, 2005 04:56 PM
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