Usability

Usability Engineers figure out how to make software easier to use. Usability studies seem to be the new darling of the IT world, and yet there are still a lot of websites and applications that are un-friendly and sometimes un-usable. The problem is, anyone who is working on a product quickly becomes too familiar with it to see usability issues.

Ah, an opportunity to pick on Windows a little bit. I'm sure most of you have heard the complaint, "I don't get why I have to go to the Start menu to turn off my computer." Most people who use Windows even a little bit adapt to this usability issue quickly, but the art of effective, user-friendly design is creating an interface to which your users don't need to adapt.

I've worked on a variety of usability projects that used techniques such as contextual inquiry and user analysis to enhance software products. Because this work is confidential, I'm in the process of setting up security for this portion of our website. If you are interested in viewing some of my usability samples, please contact me.