Usability The Elevator Pitch

1. UsabilityThe Elevator Pitch Deb Cook Eva Kaniasty Andrew Wirtanen

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

3. 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

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

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

6. 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?”

7. 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)

8. Introducing The Experts

9. The Experts • Joe DumasDr. Usability, Bentley College; Author of “A Practical Guide to Usability Testing” • Jonathan GrudinPrincipal Researcher,Microsoft Research • Steve KrugUsability Consultant and Founder, Advanced Common Sense; Author of “Don’t Make Me Think” • Mary Beth RettgerDirector of Usability, The MathWorks • Janice RohnVice President – Consumer Experience, YellowPages.com™ • Jared SpoolFounder, User Interface Engineering • Tom TullisSenior Vice President, User Experience, Fidelity Investments

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

11. 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

12. 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

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

14. The Personal Pitch

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. The Workplace Pitch

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

20. 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”

21. 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

22. 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?” “I explain the benefits in the terms that are the most important to the particular company.” - Janice Rohn, YellowPages.com “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

23. “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

24. “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

25. Lessons Learned

26. 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

27. But, Some People Still Aren’t Ready – So Choose Your Battles Wisely “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 “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

28. 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.

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