Why Usability Matters to Me
One of the lessons for me of doing this blog has been that regular, professional blogging isn't easy. I find that, like many people, there are ups and downs, battles with writer's block, etc. Thanks to the usual painfully slow arrival of spring here in Chicago, these past few weeks have definitely been on the down side of the cycle. So, I was brainstorming a bit about topics for the debabblog, and it got me thinking about an important question: "why does usability matter to me?"The short answer is that I've always been more interested in what I could do with a tool than the tool itself. I've been a coder since I was a kid; I love code, and there's something about it that just makes sense to me. I published programs in magazines, got paid for programming starting at age 15, and did my bachelor's in computer science. Somewhere along the way, though, I realized I wasn't a "techie" in the typical sense. Don't get me wrong; I love gadgets as much as the next guy, but I never understood the people who got obsessed about Mac versus PC, Nintendo versus Playstation (or, in my day, Atari versus Colecovision), and on and on. In other words, I've stopped reading Engadget and don't spend much time on Digg.
Put simply, technology is just a tool to me, and what I care about is what I can make that tool do. After my undergraduate work, I decided to get a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology, and I found a similar dilemma. I've always been interested in how the brain works, but I wasn't content in the realm of theory. Ultimately, it's what the brain can do that absolutely fascinates me.
So, why usability? Because that's exactly what usability is all about: making tools work for people. Especially in this Web 2.0 age, we've got more new gadgets and tools than we know what to do with, but it's all pointless if it doesn't eventually make our lives easier, more productive, or at least a little more fun. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
To all my friends in the usability world: I won't formally "tag" you, but I'd love to hear your personal takes on this. What got you into usability, and why does it matter to you?
Gloria Farmer
· Thursday, April 19What is or should be the obvious main goal of any company? Meeting customer needs! Sometimes companies lose sight of this simple concept
Kevin
· Saturday, April 21Is it just me, or does Web 2.0 make you want to tear out your eyeballs with righteous fury? Web 2.0 may introduce improved usability (and some of it doesn't), but not wanting to destroy my retinas on contact with it would be nice too.
Ow ow ow my eyeballs
Dr. Pete
· Monday, April 23No, it's not just you, Kevin, although I prefer to direct my righteous fury away from my own body parts :) There are some good tools out there, but just because all of the buzzing and whirring is new and improved doesn't make it any less annoying than animated GIFs or blinking red text.