<- Usability Must Die Chris McEvoy

I have been designing and building software for  people over the past fifteen for almost twenty years.

Talk to me at chris at usabilityviews dot com Why not have a look at what's on my bookshelf to see what I have been reading recently. Or take a look at my desk. You can also look at some of my other homes at Confusability, Usability Views, Alertbox Analysis, JOS Stats or Topazon. You may like to look at my collections of people connections, Userati and Finderati.

For the first five years of my (paid for) programming life I was always worrying about what direction I should move in to advance my professional career. When people asked me what I did, I didn't like to say that I was 'just' a programmer and would try to use the latest buzz job titles to describe myself as I didn't want to be seen as a Geek who with an obsessive interest in machines. I considered moving into Project Management and moving up the ladder, but always felt uncomfortable with the idea of not writing code every day. Over time I became more at ease with the idea that it was fine to spend my time writing code that helps other people make better use of theses beige boxes that squat under their desks like grumpy trolls. Now I work as a contractor, for Nationwide Building Society being paid very well for doing something I enjoy, And I love the fact that I can still get excited about crafting code to create software that helps morph these computer things into tools that can do something more that just compound the feeling that computers are making peoples lives more oppressive and stress inducing. I have always designed the software I have produced and would never class myself as a coder. I want to take pride in what I produce, but this attitude brings me into conflict with the people who make the decisions about what I should be doing (they are also the people who sign my pay cheques.) One group of people that I never have any problems with are the users. I love sitting down with the people who use my software and listening to their stories of how it makes their jobs just a little bit better, or of the next job they would like me to tackle for them. The users I am talking about are the people who work in the call centres, offices, and shops, whose lives are touched more and more every day by technology. And the technology they are forced to use is usually a 'right pile of carp'. I can feel embarrassed by the awful systems that have been built for people to use in their jobs. The users that are talked about by the usability fraternity are really consumers who pay for things with their credit cards, and most of the effort is geared towards getting these people to part with some cash. I do not believe the Usability cry that "Users should be seen and not heard". I understand why usability people say 'Look at what users do, not what they say'. They say this so that they can whitter on about the usability of software (99% web sites) without having to listen to the user that says "Well I think that company xyz are wasting their money on this, and I would prefer them to lower their prices instead." This is the reason I decided to have a go at writing down some of these thoughts rather than just shouting at my screen. I hope it provides a moment or two of thought and maybe manages to generate a nod of recognition or an under the breath mutter.

email: Chris McEvoy