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Oct 23, 2003 1:56 pm		re: re: Lack of Respect for Usability Experts
Joshua Seiden		Ryan, While there are places where usability, or more broadly, user experience is treated as a business-critical discipline, for the most part, this is not the case. The bottom line is that today's software industry is run by developers. This is either explicitly so, when developers and engineers comprise the bulk of management positions in a company, or implicitly so, because developers control what gets built. (Read Alan Cooper's "Inmates Are Running the Asylum" for more about this dynamic.) This will not change on a broad scale until two things happen. First, executives must come to see the role that design and product planning plays in mature industries (for example film, autos, etc.) and see the linkage between user experience and design. Second, usability people must recognize that unless they can make useful linkages between the work that they do and business objectives, they will continue to be marginalized. Traditional usability metrics (time on task, etc.) are tactical tools--they are irrelevant to business decision makers. We need to understand and address the bigger picture. Now, are there jobs? Yes, the good news is that old economy companies have come through the internet bubble with money to spend on IT. And they realize that all of the money that they have spent to date hasn't really moved them forward. So, some forward thinkers are turning to user experience. This is especially so in e-commerce. The bad news is that this is a tough time to break into a new field. There are lots of experienced practitioners out there looking for work--you'll be in competition with them. My long-term outlook is rosy though. My guess is that user experience work will resist being sent offshore, and will continue to be a high-value, high-compensation specialty. As Chris says, the work takes experience. My advice is to try to find a situation with some experienced practitioners to learn from. Thanks, JS >Why is it that Usability Experts don't get the respect they deserve in a software development environment? >What are your thoughts on this? Are there jobs for Usability Analysts? Are we second class citizens? >Ryan Private Reply to Joshua Seiden (new win)

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