Usability

==> Date: Wed, 18 May 2011 12:06:19 -0400
==> To: techwr-l@lists.techwr-l.com

I wondered how people felt about writers pursuing courses on usability.

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I think that it is a natural evolution of a TWer to draw upon their experience as a user of the software they are documenting to notice similarities and differences between a company's software. Do you need a formal course on usability? Perhaps, perhaps not. I earned a certificate at the 2008 WinWriter's Conference because I attended a certain number of sessions about usability. Does that make me an expert? Of course not. It did, however, give me some more additional credibility when discussing a UI with a developer.

The bottom line is that no matter how much you proclaim that every app will follow the standard development process, the standard development process often is a moving target. Developers often will pick up a new technique and make coding something easier for them and, at that point, usually, something in the User Interface will change. You can leverage your observation skills and pick up on these slight differences. Eventually, you will form opinions about which UI 'thing' works best. You will also be able to pick up on the flow of the screen the user has to fill out.

Tabs are often a controversial UI element. If there are a bunch of tabs, does that make the information hard to find? I used to design the GUI that laid on top of a text-based screen. I was constantly creating tabs (for various reasons) and constantly getting feedback that tabs are evil b/c they hide information. Look at the default tab of a tabbed UI and describe what is on the 4th tab *without clicking* on the 4th tab (using a shortcut key is off-limits as well.)

The point is that you, as the person that needs to explain how to use the UI to the user, can easily pick up on what works and what doesn't work. Another brief example is if you have three fields that are interlinked, there should probably be a group box around them to give the user a clue that the fields are interlinked. Maybe the Developer didn't think of that.

In the end, no, I do not think you get any more credit for usability if you have a class v. the experience of working on a team with Developers and being involved in the UI design.

My favorite UI design story is this. I was in a meeting where we were talking about the rewrite of a General Ledger application. In some places, "General Ledger" was the acronym "GL" and in other places, it was "G/L" in the screen samples we were discussing. What should we call it became the focus of the discussion. How do accountants refer to General Ledger - GL or G/L or both. Someone finally said, "What do you think?" to me. I said I don't really care. I think we should pick one and use it and then never discuss it again. The point of the story is that it is easy, too easy, to get sucked into discussions about the tiny details of the UI. The larger question for me has always been about the overall flow.

To answer the question directly, no, I do not think you have to attend courses on usability unless you are in an environment where you are not involved in the UI design decisions. Then those courses may assist you in your marketability.