User Experience Engineering to the fore

Finally usability is getting a little more importance than it used to. But this Business two dot oh article points out that while companies like IBM and Microsoft (believe it or not!) are focusing on usability these days, it is important for Usability Professionals to present usability as a business critical operation, not an optional extra. The article quotes Don Norman:

"They [usability professionals] don't know the language of business. They preach usability as if it's a virtuous thing, not a business-critical thing, so the executive listening simply says, 'Yes, it's a wonderful thing, but I have to get back to work."

Another proponent of usability and interaction design is Alan Cooper and Cooper's book,
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum should be a must read for engineers and product developers within your company. One sneaky way to make your point is by buying a few copies (you could buy them for the office library) and leaving them on a few people's desks... (sneaky ;) )

Posted by Navneet at May 26, 2003 12:35 AM | TrackBack | Comments disabled due to spam