Kind of like Mark Twain, though, Will Rogers had so much native sense that his downhome sayings can be applied to almost anything – even something as esoteric as usability and UX. To tell you the truth, I’m a little surprised that this quote was actually so direct. Surely, this must have been translated from something with an “ain’t” sprinkled here and a “fixin-to” sprinkled there. Honestly, it sounds more like something Jakob Nielsen might have said.
Be that as it may, it is, quiet honestly, the whole secret of our profession. You know, it seems like everybody’s got an opinion about design – from the designer, to the writer, to the IA, to the developer, to marketing, to the developer, to the VP … But you know whose opinion really matters? The user’s!
And how do we best get their opinion? Well, people have come up with quite a number of different ways to do so. I’ve touched on those in a number of different posts:
- Surveys – “The most valuable question could be the one that’s not asked.” (Anonymous)
- Voice of the customer – “Just because no one complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect.” (Benny Hill)
- Analytics – “Supposing is good, but finding out is better.” (Samuel Clemens)
- A/B testing – “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” (H.L. Mencken)
What’s really best, though, is good, old-fashioned usability testing. I don’t think there’s a better way to get rich, unbiased, and convincing data to take things out of the realm of conjecture and guide discussion down real, practical avenues that can lead to solutions that will really mean something for the customer.
And, guess what? As a usability engineer, you get to do just that!
Will Rogers also said:
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