The Usability Superheroes

When I tell people that I am in graduate school studying usability or human-centered design, they blankly stare back at me, or they think I'm making bionic limbs. It's time for some clarification.

Usability professionals are modern superheroes. We try to save companies from making, and continuing to make, terrible decisions. We do this by finding problems in interface designs (interfaces such as your favorite e-commerce website, your mobile phone or your word processing program). Problems such as how the interface is structured, how things are labeled, and how many clicks/screens are required to complete a task can really wear on users.

One would think that designers and interface developers with experience would know how to design things intuitively, but unfortunately, that's generally not the case. This is because the designer is not the user. The concept of the visionary designer who creates a "masterpiece" that no one else touches or sees until the final release is in the dark ages. The user might have more or less education, be younger or older, or want something different out of the site than what the designer expects.

So, we run tests on real users where we have them interact with the interface. We give them a list of tasks, and we record things like the time to task completion, where the mouse moves, where their eyes move, and more subtle/qualitative things like what they say or how they perceive the experience. From this, and a slew of other user-centered tests and activities, we create design recommendations that reflect what the user really needs.

The problem, though, is that many backward-thinking companies see usability as "that trendy thing" or a waste of money. What those companies don't realize is that the companies that do employ sound usability practices are kicking their asses. They also don't realize that spending some extra time and money upfront saves a ton later. And lastly, keeping your users happy by providing them with nice, usable interfaces improves the customer experience, which improves loyalty, which is HUGE. Because loyalty is everything in business, but that's another story.

That's where the superhero part comes in. We balance between finding problems and trying to save the world while simultaneously trying to convince the world that these problems are legit.

So there you have it. I'm trying to become a superhero.