Media: Darwin talks Offline Usability

"Taking Usability Offline" by David McQuillen starts by saying 'It worked for your website. Now try letting usability help you create a more usable business.' He goes on to give the example of a credit card application - a great piece of marketing and a form from hell: 'I put it on the desk, in the pile of those things I have to "get to someday." Never got back to it. ...It was too hard and too much hassle to be worth the effort.'

McQuillen argues that, to date, the practice of usability has been focused on websites and software, but that it's time to take the usability mindset offline. 'Every customer contact channel (e.g., buildings, call centers, mailings) and every process that a customer must go through can benefit from applying usability techniques in the design and testing process.'

Test things for yourself, he advocates (well, it's a starting point). 'It's amazing how few businesses actually know what it's like to be one of their own customers. Experience first-hand what it's like to purchase your product or open an account with your business. You'll be shocked at the hoops you have to jump through to complete a transaction.'

The advice is sound and concludes with consulting a usability professsional - can't say fairer than that...

The semi-anonymous comments at the end of the piece make sad but compelling reading... angry staff that know the theory and watch their companies ignoring it.

Associated Link: Darwin: Taking Usability Offline

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