Usability is an Island
There is a surprising amount of usability information available in the world. There are many excellent books and web sites, and many people with the knowledge necessary to make a difference. I’m happy to say that usability is maturing. It is still hard to precisely define, but the general concept is getting firm.
However, despite great leaps forward, usability hasn’t made much of an impact. Certainly some web sites, products, and services are better, but overall usability isn’t changing the world.
Usability knowledge has increased and there are some great tools available, but the problem is that the knowledge and tools aren’t getting into the hands of designers and developers. Usability is an island that keeps growing, but it is still an island. What needs to happen is usability specialists need to create bridges. They need to find ways to move usability into the minds of the people that are building stuff. Training programs would help too.
I think it is funny, ironic really, that most usability specialists never talk to designers or developers. They preach, they write, the moan. But, they don’t get up and talk to designers and developers. Until usability folks weave themselves into the fabric of the development process, the power of usability will be lost. Until the language of developers and designers meets up with the language of usability specialists, it’ll be horses talking to pigs.
I’ll spin this message another way. Usability is awesome but it is no good when it is outside the culture of a company. Until a company decides that it cares about customers — how they think and how they operate — usability will be left out in the cold. Designers and developers need to understand that the business needs usability to survive and thrive. It is a competitive advantage, but designers and developers will ignore it until management makes it clear that products are too hard to use.