Response: Invention is 98% Problem Determination

In recent weeks several articles have appeared on this news service giving opinions about the role of usability in design. The most recent article described the views of James Woudhuysen and referred to his article in IT Week entitled "Usability Cult Sacrifices Innovation" (see James Woudhuysen champions the Human, rejects the User). I also recall an earlier article about Ben Eliot and his view that we are "Hiding behind the User". I have been trying to decide if this is a valid criticism of usability and corporate culture, a way of seeking publicity or just a reaction to some particular event. Whatever the origin of the comments is, one key element of these articles appears to be a claim that usability and creativity are somehow in tension with one another. It's this that I'd like to comment on.

Although I can see the point if usability is applied in the wrong way, I feel that the opposite may be more to the point. Usability is the most essential tool in the innovator's kit bag. Usability work allows you to clearly identify what the problem is; to find the point in the system where the innovation is needed. Whenever I talk about inventing I always reword Thomas Edison's famous quotation on genius. For me, invention is 2% design and 98% problem determination. And, for me, the problem determination is exactly what all usability activities are about. Usability determines the goals of the users. It determines the characteristics, in terms of skills, abilities and knowledge, of the users. Usability determines the problems that the users have with any existing or competing solutions. And last but not least it finds the information to fine-tune the innovation to accelerate adoption.

Apart from the innovations which solve a problem by accident, I believe that many innovations fail because they try to solve problems that nobody cares about. An innovator can take the usability work as a framework for their innovation. It shows you the problems that people care about. It sets down the parameters that the innovator has to fit within to solve each of the problems. And if the innovator is uncomfortable with one of the bounds, it allows them to marshal the evidence for the bound being unreasonable.

No innovator worth his salt should be afraid of usability.

Dave Roberts,
IBM Ease of Use, Warwick

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