Please forgive the long letter; I didn't have time to write a short one. (Blaise Pascal)

Huh! I always thought it was Voltaire.

Anyway, one thing I’ve noticed over the years that this is a very common problem with new usability engineers and user researchers. And what that means is both too many pages (in reports, of course – not letters) as well as too many words on that page.

Now, I do have a hunch of where this comes from. And that would basically be school. Think about it. Throughout everyone’s academic career, we are usually awarded for over-delivering. It’s basically the standard way to show how smart you are and how much work you’ve done. Hey, nobody’s awarded gold stars for 16-pt type, wide margins, and something slightly under the mandated page count, right?

I guess I’m kind of lucky in that I happened to round out my academic career with a graduate degree in tech writing. The difference between what I learned in that program and what I learned as an undergrad English major could not have been more stark. 

In fact, it was only as a grad student that I first learned the basics of the rhetorical situation – audience, purpose, and context. So, who is this for? What are you trying to accomplish with it? How is it being delivered? How will it be processed? How likely is it to be accepted?

In other words, in the real world, the point of writing is not to impress the teacher and get a good grade. It’s to get things done – to impart information, to offer suggestions, to come to an agreement …

And what’s an effective way to do that? How about a PPT where you can get through every slide in an hour? A presentation where the amount of information on each page is not a distraction to what you are saying? Something where an audience member might remember 3 main points 10 minutes after the presentation is over? 

To tell you the truth, this is advice that is not just for junior team members. I just sat through a presentation where a very seasoned team may have gotten through 10 slides of a 40-page presentation.  

And it’s definitely not easy either. It takes a brave (and experienced and humble) soul to take all of that great work they did and distill it down to something that their audience can actually relate to, process, and value. It’s truly something every UE and UX researcher needs to remember though – it’s not about you!

Yup, that's him alright!

It depends (every usability engineer ever)

I’ve often joked that I want this on my tombstone … Even though I feel a little conflicted by it.

On the one hand, I see my offering this statement as a good thing. It means people are coming to me with questions. So, basically, I’ve gained their trust. Yay!

On the other hand, though, there are some things that make me cringe a little when I have to say this. Probably the main thing is that my clients seem to be thinking in black and white terms. Alternatively, they may also simply be wanting a thumbs up / thumbs down from yours truly.

One of the things I feel like I am always trying to get across to my clients is that the world is a complex place, and a lot of it is very situational. In particular, I like to get across that usability issues are often contextual in nature.

For example, who is this system for? A technical audience? Well, they may be just fine with it. Your average Joe or Jane? No way in heck!

In addition … What is the user’s goal? How motivated are they? Where will they be doing this? Have they seen stuff like this before? 

What are your goals? Are those in conflict with the users’ in any way? How should we prioritize? Who is making the decisions?

How hard is it to the make that change? Do you have time to do that? Is it worth the effort? What are the goals of your project?

Overall, how is this decision being applied? In just this particular situation? Across the board?

And on and on and on.

You know, maybe “it depends” is just a good way to begin the conversation. Maybe a better way to word that simply would be, “Tell me more.”

Ha ha!  Very clever, funny developer guys!