Usability: The Elevator Pitch

Usability The Elevator Pitch Deb Cook Eva Kaniasty Andrew Wirtanen

Agenda
Explaining what we do
Our approach to getting answers
Introducing the experts
The Personal Pitch
The Workplace Pitch
Lessons learned

What Is So Hard About Explaining What We Do?
Some people have it easy…
I’m a lawyer
I’m a web designer
I’m a jet pilot
I’m a software engineer
Some don’t…
I’m an Interaction Designer
I’m an Information Architect
I’m a Human Factors Engineer
I’m a Usability Specialist

Explaining Usability
How much detail?
How technical?
What terminology?
Human Factors
Information Design
Usability
User Experience
Information Architecture
Accessibility
User Research
Interaction Design
Intuitive
User-friendly
Efficient
Effective
Easy to use/learn
Not frustrating
Satisfying
Enjoyable

What Not To Say…
Human Factors
Human Resources
Human Services
Human Factory
Human Sacrifice
The devolution of HF

Common Misunderstandings
Usability is easy
“ You make things user friendly? They pay you for that?”
“ This stuff is obvious. Anybody can do it.”
User research is unnecessary
“ Our products are usable. Customers never complain about our software/website.”
“ We don’t need to talk to users. Our salespeople know what customers want.”
Usability by any other name
“ Doesn’t QA do this?”
“ We already have a beta-testing program.”
“ You make things look pretty, right?”

Our Approach
Ask the experts…
How they define usability?
How they explain it?
How they persuade others?
Do their mothers understand what they do for a living? (No)

Introducing The Experts

The Experts
Joe Dumas Dr. Usability, Bentley College; Author of “A Practical Guide to Usability Testing”
Jonathan Grudin Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research
Steve Krug Usability Consultant and Founder, Advanced Common Sense; Author of “Don’t Make Me Think”
Mary Beth Rettger Director of Usability, The MathWorks
Janice Rohn Vice President – Consumer Experience, YellowPages.com™
Jared Spool Founder, User Interface Engineering
Tom Tullis Senior Vice President, User Experience, Fidelity Investments

We Make Things Usable. So, what exactly does that mean?

Usability Is… “ [A product is usable when] people can use the thing for its intended purpose, without it being more trouble than it’s worth.” – Steve Krug, Advanced Common Sense “… the absence of frustration. What you do is remove all the frustrating bits...” – Jared Spool, User Interface Engineering “ A usable product allows the user to focus on what they’re trying to accomplish…” -Mary Beth Rettger, The MathWorks

Usability Is In The Eye Of The Beholder
Good usability is hard to pinpoint
It’s easier to see…
Poor usability
Consequences of bad usability
The next frontier
Enjoyable user experiences

So How Do We Explain What We Do? …It depends.

The Personal Pitch

It Depends On The Audience
Interest level
Relationship
Familiarity/Comfort with technology
Attractiveness?!?
“ I gauge [if] they’re coming from a technical background…Depending on the background, I alter it.” - Janice Rohn, YellowPages.com “I have six different answers.” - Jared Spool, User Interface Engineering

Keep It Simple “It’s sort of on a need-to-know basis…The simpler you can keep it the better.” - Steve Krug, Advanced Common Sense “I tell people I do software engineering, because people can relate to that. Then I say I’m involved in making products easy to use.” - Joe Dumas, Dr. Usability “ I try to help design websites so people can use them easily…the web domain is a handy one to talk in because it is one that almost everybody can relate to.” - Tom Tullis, Fidelity Investments

Examples Work Well
“ Phone menu systems are just nightmarish...”
Steve Krug, Advanced Common Sense
“ Remote controls…Dr. Usability had to get help…just to be able to turn the picture-in-picture off.”
Joe Dumas, Dr. Usability “Remote control units.”
Jonathan Grudin, Microsoft Research
“ The funny thing about thinking of that as the Elevator Pitch [for Usability] is that I sometimes I use an elevator as my example.”
-Tom Tullis, Fidelity Investments

The Workplace Pitch

It Depends On The Audience
Interest level
Frequency of interaction
Person’s role in the organization
Person’s primary focus (function)
Business
Product development

Common Strategies
Avoid the term “usability”
Position user centered design (UCD) as a solution to a problem
Tie it into the goals, objectives and values of the business (or the person)
WIIFM – “What’s in it for me?”
“Show” is more powerful than “tell”

Avoid The Term “Usability” “ One of the things we learned a long time ago is the less we mention the word ‘usability’, the better we can sell things - and the bigger the projects.” - Jared Spool, User Interface Engineering

Position UCD As A Solution To A Problem
Tie it into the goals, objectives and values of the business (or the person)
WIIFM – “What’s in it for me?”
“ We talked about their problems. They didn’t have a usability problem. They had a problem that they weren’t selling enough.” - Jared Spool, User Interface Engineering “ I explain the benefits in the terms that are the most important to the particular company.” - Janice Rohn, YellowPages.com

“ Show” Is More Powerful Than “Tell” “ Talking about user centered design and the value of it in the abstract just doesn’t seem to be nearly as convincing as being able to see it in action.” -Tom Tullis, Fidelity Investments “ I try to get users in front of developers as much as I can.” -Joe Dumas, Dr. Usability “ I would tell people ‘Do some user tests.’ Have them watch people try and use their stuff.” -Steve Krug, Advanced Common Sense “ The best way to explain the benefits is actually to demonstrate the benefits.” -Mary Beth Rettger

“ Show” Is More Powerful Than “Tell” “ One of the things I’m a big believer in is measuring the state of things before and after…Demonstrate significant improvement.” -Janice Rohn, YellowPages.com

Lessons Learned

It’s Getting Better All The Time “ I have seen such a huge change over the years.” -Janice Rohn, YellowPages.com “In the early days, you had to teach people, or try to convince them, that usability itself was important.” -Joe Dumas, Dr. Usability

But, Some People Still Aren’t Ready – So Choose Your Battles Wisely “ We’ve certainly had some people who get mainly defensive…when we’re testing ‘their baby’….But most people recognize the value of it.” -Tom Tullis, Fidelity Investments “I gave up trying to convince people that usability was important. I just figured, if they didn’t get it, they were not going to ever get it, probably. ” -Joe Dumas, Dr. Usability

Final Lessons
We are in good company -
Even the experts have struggled with this issue.
Write a book –
It will reduce your need to create a usability elevator pitch.

Discussion
Questions?
Comments?
War Stories?
The full presentation, including video clips, will be available at http://www.WhatIsUsability.com soon. Debbie Cook - dcooknj@yahoo.com Eva Kaniasty – kaniasty@gmail.com Andrew Wirtanen – andrew.wirtanen@gmail.com

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Usability: The Elevator Pitch

by Andrew Wirtanen on May 27, 2007

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Usability: The Elevator Pitch — Presentation Transcript