On usability plans
This is the last bit of text I wrote for the main body of the book. It’s the concluding section for the chapter on Usability Plans, a passage that needed serious updating from the first editions.
This isn’t the best bit of writing from the 2nd edition, nor is it the most important. But it is the last bit I’ll do. For a while.
Look for the second edition to be available in September.
The best-laid plans
Gauging the usability of our design work is a method and process undergoing change. Whereas lab-based testing (recruiting participants, bringing them to a lab, watching them use the product) has been entrenched for years, it is being supplemented with other forms of testing. Technologies allow designers to watch people use web sites in real-time, gathering data as it happens. We can recruit people from across the globe, ask them to participate in an unmoderated usability study, and aggregate data across multiple sessions–all from the comfort of our desk.
These capabilities have raised some worthwhile and difficult questions in the design community. How much should design decisions be informed by data? Must we respond to every usability problem surfaced? How much feedback is too much feedback? For years we sought to be closer to the target audience, to be able to watch them in real-time and solicit input. Now that such a technique is a reality, we wonder if we should be careful about what we wish for.
To me, these controversies point to more careful planning, an increasing need to establish the parameters for studying users relative to the product. A document answering some basic questions provides, in a sense, a contract. Everyone on the project should have a shared understanding of what kind of information will come out of a usability study and how that information will be used.
A good usability plan does more than just incorporate some clever script-writing and scenario-building. It establishes a role for the usability test in the design process. It moderates the voice of the user, couching it in a context that helps the project team interpret the results. It positions that input among the countless others the design team needs to accommodate.
In assembling a usability plan, it can become easy to get lost in planning logistics, writing scenarios, composing interview questions. There is a lot to think about. In light of all of it, keeping things focused on the ultimate objectives is hard. And I’m not talking about the objectives for the test (though that’s pretty hard, too). The ultimate objective is informing the design process. A good usability plan must imply, if not articulate explicitly, how the design team will incorporate the results; how they will integrate it into the landscape of the project, treating it not as a stand-alone activity, but as a constant source of feedback and inspiration.
