Usability just doesn’t happen?
As I attempt to role usability out into the wilds of my company, I sometimes get pushback that comes in the form of, “Why do we need a formal process? Shouldn’t usability be an integral part of product development like quality or reliability?”
There are two parts to that challenge. One is making usability happen and the other is ensuring it did happen. The obvious response to the second part is that if quality is ensured by a test or Q/A team, then shouldn’t usability have similar resources? That’s an easy argument to make.
The first part is more challenging since it involves changes to the way a company develops products. How do you make usability happen as an integral component of development? It sure doesn’t happen on its own and is not a technical task like coding. (A recent article and thread on OK/Cancel addressed this issue quite well.) While it’s easy to show development how a usability test pays off, it’s harder to justify the expense of user studies that aim to provide the team with a better idea of their target users.
Another aspect of usability is good design. In my company (not sure about others), most interface design is done by engineers, not experienced interaction designers. I believe better designs would come from specialists in that field, but that’s a battle I won’t be fighting for a while.
Ongoing testing or evaluation can help mitigate the lack of user research and optimum design staff. If we can test early and often, it may take a little longer to iterate to a great design, but it should be possible.