Summary: The purpose of this article is to challenge a core belief in usability. An argument is made that profits are more important than users since organizations cannot survive without profits. Although the business value is high, usability is only one mechanism for driving profits and success.
What is the Point of Usability?
People like to talk about how usability has a certain intrinsic value, as if usability has its own literal value. This is simply not true. Usability provides no value to a product or service until it is purchased and used by a customer. Usability is merely a quality that is associated with a product. In fact, some might say that it is not even a quality since it can really only be measured by the perceptions of people. Perhaps another way to say this is that the measurement of usability is subjective, not objective. For the most part, the value of usability is in the eye of the beholder.
Usability is a competitive advantage for a company only once that company sells a product. In effect, usability adds value at the time a purchase is made. This means that usability as an end, in and of itself, is entirely foolish for an organization. This is also why business managers look at usability with a skeptical eye. What is the value it brings? Will it help the company? If yes, in what ways? Ultimately, this means that focusing on usability for the sake of usability, or even focusing on usability for the sake of customers, is poor business. Instead, usability should be seen as a way for an organization to generate increased sales or decreased costs. Usability as an end point does not make sense. It must be evaluated in terms of profit generation.
Most people in the field of usability assume that usability as an end point makes sense. The idea goes like this. If we focus on usability, we are bringing the thoughts, desires, and needs of users into the fold. That is, if something is highly usable, it is something that is good for people. People like things that are more usable. People are willing to pay more for usable products and services. When people are at the center of design, then the things we sell them will make them happy. It seems that the idea is to have a closed loop system. Start with the users, build products and services they say they want, and then they will buy what they tell us they want. Seems like a great idea on the surface. But there are issues. If the focus is on users, and they always come first, will the business maintain the margins it needs? Where is the focus on the business? A focus on users does not guarantee good business whatsoever. Users at the center mean that companies are not. What does this entail? Where does it lead?
Center of the Universe
Generally speaking, users are not looking out for the best interests of companies. Customers don't just give their money to companies. Instead, money flows from users to organizations because organizations create value. Without organizations, we have no products and services and users will never get what they want. In other words, we might say that organizations, such as corporations and businesses, are the locus. They make stuff people want.
If the corporation is the center of the universe, what does this mean to usability? It means that usability specialists need to wake up and smell the coffee. Users are necessary because they spend money. The flow of profits is what organizations need, not usability. Usability is more of a means than an end. For businesses, usability is more of a tool than an attribute of a product or service.
This revised model of the universe also drives other ideas. For example, customer needs, customer satisfaction, and so on, come after corporate profits. This is not to suggest that corporations should be soulless money-making machines. Instead, it just means that perhaps profitability should come before usability. It means that corporations should be allowed the room to make decisions based on the principle that usability is an investment, with the goal of driving profits. Furthermore, it means that the usability should sell itself to organizations in terms of what it can do for profits, not customer satisfaction, better user experiences, improved designs, or anything else. A usability specialist should sell usability as a way to help an organization drive profits.
Competition for Funding
All of this means that usability is in competition with every other business idea. Face it, this is the way it is treated by business managers. The usability community, and usability specialists, should just wake up and realize they are selling some level of value, just like anyone else. Designers, marketing folks, quality control people, cost specialists, strategy gurus, and so on, are all selling the same thing: Bottom line value to an organization. There is fierce competition for budgets and money. Usability is being weighed against all other value-adding ideas, tools, and techniques.
In light of all of this, usability specialists need to start getting better at understanding the business value of their services. The community needs to bone up on marketing, sales, finance, and more, in order to find the value proposition for organizations.
There should be no pity for those folks waiting for organizations to understand the value of usability on their own, since it is "obviously" the greatest idea ever. We should have no sympathy for usability people who can't formulate a solid business case for usability. The value offered should be obvious, explicit, easy to explain and digest, and the bottom line should be in focus. Always.
Corporate Motivations, Usability Motivations
Organizations care about profits. That is what we should care about too, and we should work backwards from there. We should figure out what organizations need, right along our with our user research.
In short, the usability community must get out of the business of always putting users first. It is will be extremely hard to do this, but ultimately, everyone will benefit. Users will get the value they want, corporations will get the profits they want, and the usability community will get the recognition it needs in the business world, and perhaps increased funds, profits, and projects.
If you feel that this is an anti-usability rant, take a few steps back. Ultimately, what is being offered is quite simple. If an organization isn't profitable, it will die. Usability is only one business tool.
Our job should be to help organizations succeed while simultaneously helping users get what they want. The best way to do this is to help organizations better understand the value of usability, get usability into products and services, and help organizations profit from doing the right thing for users.
What is the Point of Usability?
People like to talk about how usability has a certain intrinsic value, as if usability has its own literal value. This is simply not true. Usability provides no value to a product or service until it is purchased and used by a customer. Usability is merely a quality that is associated with a product. In fact, some might say that it is not even a quality since it can really only be measured by the perceptions of people. Perhaps another way to say this is that the measurement of usability is subjective, not objective. For the most part, the value of usability is in the eye of the beholder.
Usability is a competitive advantage for a company only once that company sells a product. In effect, usability adds value at the time a purchase is made. This means that usability as an end, in and of itself, is entirely foolish for an organization. This is also why business managers look at usability with a skeptical eye. What is the value it brings? Will it help the company? If yes, in what ways? Ultimately, this means that focusing on usability for the sake of usability, or even focusing on usability for the sake of customers, is poor business. Instead, usability should be seen as a way for an organization to generate increased sales or decreased costs. Usability as an end point does not make sense. It must be evaluated in terms of profit generation.
Most people in the field of usability assume that usability as an end point makes sense. The idea goes like this. If we focus on usability, we are bringing the thoughts, desires, and needs of users into the fold. That is, if something is highly usable, it is something that is good for people. People like things that are more usable. People are willing to pay more for usable products and services. When people are at the center of design, then the things we sell them will make them happy. It seems that the idea is to have a closed loop system. Start with the users, build products and services they say they want, and then they will buy what they tell us they want. Seems like a great idea on the surface. But there are issues. If the focus is on users, and they always come first, will the business maintain the margins it needs? Where is the focus on the business? A focus on users does not guarantee good business whatsoever. Users at the center mean that companies are not. What does this entail? Where does it lead?
Center of the Universe
Generally speaking, users are not looking out for the best interests of companies. Customers don't just give their money to companies. Instead, money flows from users to organizations because organizations create value. Without organizations, we have no products and services and users will never get what they want. In other words, we might say that organizations, such as corporations and businesses, are the locus. They make stuff people want.
If the corporation is the center of the universe, what does this mean to usability? It means that usability specialists need to wake up and smell the coffee. Users are necessary because they spend money. The flow of profits is what organizations need, not usability. Usability is more of a means than an end. For businesses, usability is more of a tool than an attribute of a product or service.
This revised model of the universe also drives other ideas. For example, customer needs, customer satisfaction, and so on, come after corporate profits. This is not to suggest that corporations should be soulless money-making machines. Instead, it just means that perhaps profitability should come before usability. It means that corporations should be allowed the room to make decisions based on the principle that usability is an investment, with the goal of driving profits. Furthermore, it means that the usability should sell itself to organizations in terms of what it can do for profits, not customer satisfaction, better user experiences, improved designs, or anything else. A usability specialist should sell usability as a way to help an organization drive profits.
Competition for Funding
All of this means that usability is in competition with every other business idea. Face it, this is the way it is treated by business managers. The usability community, and usability specialists, should just wake up and realize they are selling some level of value, just like anyone else. Designers, marketing folks, quality control people, cost specialists, strategy gurus, and so on, are all selling the same thing: Bottom line value to an organization. There is fierce competition for budgets and money. Usability is being weighed against all other value-adding ideas, tools, and techniques.
In light of all of this, usability specialists need to start getting better at understanding the business value of their services. The community needs to bone up on marketing, sales, finance, and more, in order to find the value proposition for organizations.
There should be no pity for those folks waiting for organizations to understand the value of usability on their own, since it is "obviously" the greatest idea ever. We should have no sympathy for usability people who can't formulate a solid business case for usability. The value offered should be obvious, explicit, easy to explain and digest, and the bottom line should be in focus. Always.
Corporate Motivations, Usability Motivations
Organizations care about profits. That is what we should care about too, and we should work backwards from there. We should figure out what organizations need, right along our with our user research.
In short, the usability community must get out of the business of always putting users first. It is will be extremely hard to do this, but ultimately, everyone will benefit. Users will get the value they want, corporations will get the profits they want, and the usability community will get the recognition it needs in the business world, and perhaps increased funds, profits, and projects.
If you feel that this is an anti-usability rant, take a few steps back. Ultimately, what is being offered is quite simple. If an organization isn't profitable, it will die. Usability is only one business tool.
Our job should be to help organizations succeed while simultaneously helping users get what they want. The best way to do this is to help organizations better understand the value of usability, get usability into products and services, and help organizations profit from doing the right thing for users.
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