User Testing

[Gregory Merchan <merchan phys lsu edu>]

Calls for user testing have become a bromide. They are probably soon to
be as bad as crack.

It seems many find the crack references funny, but they are getting in
the way. Calls for user testing are calls for indefinite deferment.

Rather than saying something is crack, crackheaded, or the like, just
say what the problem is. No matter how many times something is called
crack, it doesn't make it so. If development is to continue publicly and
there are to be any newcomers, the offensive inside jokes have to stop
or truly be 'inside' off the public lists.

User testing is not a panacea. As mpt noted in a follow-up 
( http://mpt.phrasewise.com/2002/04/21 ) to his now famous entry,
the Sun user testing produced results which "would have been fairly
obvious to the average HCI graduate doing a heuristic evaluation."
Rather than calling for user testing, either admit ignorance, try
to find an answer by research, or propose in full a specific test.



Trying to manage without authority or pay,
Greg Merchan