Re: [Usability] Overthinking things.

[Charline <charline poirier canonical com>]

This approach seems right.  We do have to ask ourselves, why do users 
not volunteer their usability experience?

   * For one thing, a mishap with a programme or an application makes
     most users feel like they don't know what they're doing.  A large
     number of users still are not sure about what to expect, although
     this is progressively changing and people tend to be more
     demanding.  Still...
   * For another, they don't think in terms of usability, they don't
     have the language and the knowledge to talk about their experience
     in these terms. 
   * When something doesn't work, many users try out a few things and
     then, move on.  They have no particular invested interest in
     resolving a particular computer issue.

Hence, as pointed out in the email below, we need to observe users not 
wait for them to tell us what the problems are. Usability testing is one 
approach that provides answers to  how people interact with specific 
functionalities in the testing context.  I agree that we need to go and 
watch people in their everyday context when they are trying to do 
something that is relevant and important to them (like in the internet 
cafe example) in addition to testing.  We, in fact, should be using a 
variety of methodologies to tackle these questions, like 
ethnographic-based research. 

Community list, a good start.

C.


--

*CHARLINE POIRIER*
*User Research Programme Lead*
*Canonical*
*27th floor, 21-24 Millbank Tower*
*London SW1P 4QP UK *

*Tel: +44 (0) 20 7630 2491*
*Mob: +44 (0) 78 8695 4514*
*www.Ubuntu.com <http://www.Ubuntu.com/> <http://www.Ubuntu.com/>*
*www.Canonical.com <http://www.Canonical.com/>*



kerberos piestar net wrote:
> There's lots of talk of recording input, technical bug-tracking 
> solutions, and other technical solutions to the apparent usability 
> problem, but can I say I think we are putting the horse miles before 
> the cart here?
>
> I owned and ran an internet cafe for a few years and basically spent 
> most of every day helping users of all ages, abilities and backgrounds 
> get online, sign up with email, scan things, write documents, all the 
> basic stuff.  This was early-mid 2000's so people were still 
> unfamiliar with the internet as a rule.  It taught me to think like a 
> user, rather than as a geek, and gave me an understanding of UI design 
> since after showing the 100th person how to do something it made me 
> acutely aware of where people (and software) went wrong.  Dumb things 
> I previously had nothing but disdain for such like wizards made my 
> life so much easier.
>
> There is no point trying to do user focus testing when there has been 
> little to no attention to usability paid so far.  User testing is to 
> confirm that your ideas work (or don't work) and to identify problems, 
> while the current system seems largely to me to have grown out of 
> necessity and lacks any cohesive ideas in the first place - it's more 
> of a developer plaything than a user-centric designed system.
>
> Plus the users comments are largely worthless anyhow.  Seeing where 
> they are going wrong is the important bit, but it is a bit redundant 
> if most good usability experts can spot it without them and come up 
> with good solutions in the process.  Ideally on a lot of projects what 
> is required is going back to the start, considering each feature and 
> asking 'is this the best that can be done here'.  Only once you 
> yourself are happy with it should the users be set upon it.
>
> I think there is an affinity for trying to find a technical solution 
> (in the form of trackers, testing and stats) to what is essentially a 
> human problem with (unfortunatley) no correct answers.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Usability mailing list
> Usability gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability


--

*CHARLINE POIRIER*
*User Research Programme Lead*
*Canonical*
*27th floor, 21-24 Millbank Tower*
*London SW1P 4QP UK *

*Tel: +44 (0) 20 7630 2491*
*Mob: +44 (0) 78 8695 4514*
*www.Ubuntu.com <http://www.Ubuntu.com/> <http://www.Ubuntu.com/>*
*www.Canonical.com <http://www.Canonical.com/>*