January User Experience Quote – Dray
If the user can’t use it, it doesn’t work
- Susan Dray – President of Dray & Associates
It is as simple as that, if your company designs products (web application, car, camera, etc) that can’t be used by the targeted users, you just fail. In her quote, the term user implies specified or targeted user even if that specified group of users could include a wide range of the population. I’m saying that because you won’t expect anybody to be able to use the flight deck of a helicopter for example.
This quote leads me to tell you that you must understand your users (behaviours, environment, goals, etc) before you design your product and must test your ideas (wireframes, prototype, etc) with real end users. If your manager tells you, we don’t need to effectuate usability testing. Well, you know what, your product will eventually be tested by your users… you want it or not! Believe me; it’s better to test it before it goes on the shelf!
Here are two Flickr groups that show broken products:
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