Usability means better business
More business are beginning to discover that usability is a Good Thing, as evidenced by this long feature article on the front page of the Tech NW business section of Portland's Oregonian newspaper. Interestingly, it's one of the few general-interest articles to note usability's roots in the human factors field going back to World War II. And there's also a nice testimonial from Good Guys, the electronics retailer, whose director of marketing and business development specifically asked for a usability evaluation of their site because ease-of-use increases the proportion of purchasers among visitors to the site.
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Your thoughts…
Jon Meads was a bit clueless. To attribute the failure of dot.coms totally on usability shows the poor business understanding of most people in usability. There were a variety of bad business decisions made along the way (not the slightest of which was spending way too much money in the development of the sites; too much too soon, without evolving with the market along the way).
I can't imagine why Jon isn't on a bandwagon to describe, instead, the huge market losses that are occuring across all realms of business because processes throughout the company miss potential due to bad design (or lack thereof -- can we start with phone menuing systems?). I see too many individuals in our related fields too narrowly focused on just the Internet. Do you agree?
– Paula Thornton @ 06.08.2001
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I agree with Paula's assessment here. Usability can only enhance a good idea, it cannot sell a bad one. Before an idea can even get to the usability phase it must have a reason for being and a sustainable plan. Even the best engineered path to get to "buy this crappy product" is still going to get you a crappy product.
Yes, usability is important, and yes it can give a competitive edge by helping to convert a higher percentage of users, but it must exist within a larger thought process, or all the usability in the world doesn't do a bit of good.
– Kyle Drummond @ 06.11.2001
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