Re: Default Template discussion

Janne Jalkanen wrote:
>> I have no argument with that. But unless those small groups are
>> very typical of the target audience they will be less likely to
>> find the glitches, that are nonsensical or difficult than would
>> the larger population.
> 
> I think that most of the modern usability researchers would disagree 
> with you there and say that even a small group (5-10) is usually enough 
> to iron out the majority of the issues, and that adding more people to 
> the problem will only confuse the issue and not reveal any major new 
> insights.  It's more efficient to iterate rapidly through a small set of 
> people, rework your UI and get it back to a usability test than it is to 
> get a massive amount of people mobilized for high-quality testing.

I think we're talking at cross purposes. If you have yourself either
a background in usability or are enlisting usability experts in the
design I agree completely. I was only talking about the typical
problem of letting a project's engineers design the UI: you end up
with a UI designed by engineers, with bells and whistles galore and
the lay users can't figure it out, witness much of consumer electronics
in the last 20 years. Not all of course.

>> No, not user preferences. My point was that we do have to care
>> about usability, but with a very small sample size of people who
>> are highly technical and already know the product, we're not
>> going to get very valid usability statistics. They'll be better
>> than nothing, but they won't be typical of how normal, lay people
>> will handle the application.
> 
> Yes, we are.  Trust me on this - I've been working closely to experts in 
> this area for quite some time.  Especially with lay people.

Then like I said above I think we're on the same page. I'm just wary
of products designed and tested solely by engineers without a usability
background.

Murray

...........................................................................
Murray Altheim <murray07 at altheim.com>                           ===  = =
http://www.altheim.com/murray/                                     = =  ===
SGML Grease Monkey, Banjo Player, Wantanabe Zen Monk               = =  = =

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