Get Business Orientated and Get in There Longer, says Stewart

Tom Stewart of System Concepts asked "Why does it seem so difficult to make computers friendly?" at the UPA meeting in London this week and got into a discussion about the role of the usability profession.

Much of his presentation covered the age-old basics of why we need usability work, such as error messages that give no information, and traps that designers fall into, such as over-identifying with or patronising users. But when he went on to put this work into a business context, there were fresh insights as to how to take on the job.

First, he pointed out that human-centred design processes can be scary for project managers, not least because they have a tendency to reveal poor planning. Ask who the users are, and if that hasn't been decided, it shows up a major flaw.

Problems like this can be avoided if the expert is on hand longer. Stewart has addressed this by offering project management skills as well as UCD knowledge.

He said there should be more emphasis on business and management skills to justify 'being around longer' in the process. A show of hands revealed that only 2 people in the audience had MBAs, whereas a majority felt they were capable of project management. The challenge is convincing the market to take that potential seriously, without hard evidence, he said. In fact, he pointed to a trend the other way: business schools were now tackling more usability type issues.

As a question for the audience, he put it to them that 'the 1 minute brain surgeon' is a totally unacceptable concept, whereas 'the 1 minute manager' is the title of a popular book. Which kind of role were usability professionals looking for?

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