Wrench in the System by Harold Hambrose

For a long time, software developers have been under the impression that usability practices constitute “good design.” Although usability is a necessary outcome of any successful design exercise, excellent design cannot be guaranteed from the execution of usability practices alone. Usability must be done within the design process and early enough to influence and guide development.

True design, the kind I advocate (the only kind of design in my book), incorporates the concerns of usability professionals into a process that includes defining the problem, exploring solutions, validating the proposed design solution, and supporting its implementation.

Usability is nothing new to software development. For twenty years, I have seen software products developed with at least some concern for what business sponsors and programmers have called usability. Most of the time this concern is addressed through the employment of a “Usability Professional” or the execution of usability testing, user interface design standards, and adherence to countless documented usability best practices. These usability professionals issue reports of observed difficulties and, if the developer is lucky, provide a reference to some documented best practice.

Usability practices incorporated within a true design process do more than just report errors or quantify their severity. The usability I’m talking about empowers quick and effective alternative designs that solve usability problems.

The most sophisticated usability lab in the world can serve no meaningful purpose if it is used only as a means of identifying problems. Moreover, usability methods applied after code has been written offer too little, too late. They miss the opportunity for meaningful changes to the user interface before expensive software development. People have been saying this for years now.

Usability practices alone don’t necessarily guarantee a well-designed product. I think of them as necessary, but not sufficient.