Usability Must Die The view of a programmer who loves HCI but hates Web Usability



Usability has grown into a monster.
illustration of the usability process     

  • Usability is a tool that should be in the kit of all software designers/programmers. It only became a profession when people found they could charge £1,000 a day by calling themselves Usability Engineers and pontificate on the mysteries of 'ease of use'.
    free discount usability...

  • Experience Design is just Web Usability that is charged out at a 25% premium, and is the first destination of the rats fleeing the good ship Usability.
    the day Alertbod died...



  • It is no longer about Human Computer Interaction, but has degenerated into a narrow field that only talks about guidelines and patterns for web page design, and is obsessed by abandoned shopping trolleys (or carts).

  • It has succeeded in bringing the user out of their box, but has only gone as far as putting them behind a one-way mirror where they can be viewed and examined like animals in a zoo.
    let the users see the data...

  • It is used as a battleground where 'web designers' argue with 'proper programmers' about when it is acceptable to use Flash.
    ugly interfaces - does it matter?....
    why you only need to design with One Person....

  • We are allowing it to be used as a wedge to divide the different groups who are involved in creating software systems.
    meet the cast...

  • It has been subsumed by the corporate design process which is used to take control away from designers/programmers and put it in the hands of the marketeers.

Join the backlash now and help turn the software world upside down.

  • Lets put the people using our software at the heart of everything we do instead of just paying lip service to the primacy of the mythical user.
  • Remember the three Ps:
    Its always about People, and it should always be done with Passion.
    people who do it with passion...

Articles of Interest

Why...

... there is no mention of Jakob Nielsen (well not too many).
... there is no third P.
... this site.