Get Usability R-E-S-P-E-C-T with Credentials

We live in a “do it yourself” culture, where you can teach yourself programming languages, computer operation, and even build your own robot. But does it give what Aretha Franklin wanted from other people: R-E-S-P-E-C-T?

Turns out that usability is as much a set of social skills as a technical skill. This plays a role when you want to get some political respect. Social skills resist capture in books. Among the social skills, we include “active listening” for usability interviews and usability presentations. Other social skills include avoidance of leading questions in interviews and usability testing. This just scratches the surface, politically. Check out “change management” for the big political picture.

While books can be a great start, observation of role modeling by stand-up instructors and participation in exercises become the short-cut to talking and acting like a real usability professional.

Then, the question remains, “does the person have evidence of attaining expertise?” How do other perceive your pedigree? Systematic training as captured by certification offers several benefits.

Here are some more Zen koan-like findings that elevate your credibility in usability discussions.

a) Usability gate-keeping roles now appear to be “earned” with appropriate sweat and approvals by usability authorities.  Usability certification has recognition. Thus, others without the sweat equity in certification will accede to your recommendations, much as we accede to a doctor’s recommendations, because, well, she’s the doctor. Check out this usability credentialing program.

(Disclosure, I work for the company that promotes that program. But then, I can also say it’s worth it because I know about it from the inside. Note that I got my usability credentials the old “usual” but “hard” way: I got a $100,000 PhD in a psychology-related area (Instructional Design), then I got great OJT—-on-the-job training—-one-on-one from a role-modeling super expert.)

Meanwhile, given the web-explosion of the last 6 years or so, lots of people got “dubbed” as a usability professional–just like when the king runs short of warriors on horseback, he’ll dub as many knights as needed and hand them a sword. Very little role-modeling goes on during the dub-days of usability.

b) Even though one has read many books and learned much from others, a credential can validate knowledge in a systematic fashion. This increases your sense of self-efficacy, and more importantly, your self-confidence—which gets communicated to others.

c) Taking a test allows you to compare yourself with their peers and gain confidence that your are “one of the group of professionals” who collectively have the respect and allegiance of management.

d) Meeting other usability professionals when getting credential training allows you to network with others and create you own sense of community. You can approach usability (and your political) problems from a collective perspective when you ask others about solutions they recommend. Collect phone numbers and email addresses at those training courses.

Beyond “I think” and “I feel”

Is your organization jumping on the “usability” bandwagon? Analogs for usability include “user experience” or “ease of use” or even “information architecture”. Ironically, I often hear stories about how organizations marginalize their new usability people and fail to benefit.

Marginalization or “let’s skip usability for now” reflects the political problem of NOT impressing the right people at the right time.

Check this blog to read concrete, proven recommendations for getting usability moxie. I’ve consulted on and taught computer-human interface design for the last 20 years, including 10 years of usable web design, all under the auspices of www.humanfactors.com.

Speaking credibly…

Many new usability professions report that when they give their opinion, colleagues will say “that’s your opinion, and now, here’s my opinion”. So, we end up with a battle of opinions. While on politics that might be standard, in professional dealings it’s nice to bring facts and methodology to the table.

This problem requires changing one’s style of communication, including dropping phrases like “I think” or “I feel”. Instead, use appeals like the following which have been reported to work successfully in many instances.

These suggestions must be used with attention to the context and usability savy of the listeners. Be prepared to explain any technical words that otherwise would not be understood. The brief form of these suggestions makes them sound almost like Zen koans. Make comments below to get clarification or add your own experiences.

a) Best practices suggest….(Check out recommendations from your usability training and reading. Online resources offer help such as the University of Minnesota at Duluth or Human Factors International’s research reviews.)

b) Research indicates…(Check out the above and also www.usability.gov)

c) Our usability tests indicates…(Report your results)

d) Cognitive task analysis shows this sequence of work….(Discuss how users incur various costs in effort related to visual, intellectual, memory, and motor loads as the occur in sequence. Discuss the possible tripping points.)

e) If I were to conduct a usability test, I expect x% of our subjects to have a problem… (And follow up with cogent reasons)

f) I don’t know…we’ll run a usability test…. (Be humble. Better to conduct a test and avoid speaking for “all users” off the cuff)

g) If I were a usability test subject, I would probably experience x… (Here, you are speaking for at least one user, yourself, but in the context that it is not all users who may have other problems–or even no problem).

h) Similar issues in other usability testing revealed x….. (While not exactly the same as the “current” problem, we can make this inference from prior testing)

i) Our standards indicate… (Consistency has great value of itself. Above that, we hope the designs in the standards have been usability tested for ergonomic value.)

j) Our interviews and observations among end-users showed us that…. (Clarification of the users’ collective mental model often begins with anecdotes of individual end user behaviors and statements.)

k) In interviews and observations, end-users demonstrated that… (A stronger version of the preceding statement)