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"Thoughts" are comments and shared musings from the tmg team; if you would like to discuss any topics please let us know
It is time to stop abstracting components of the experience. Search, usability and accessibility are all integral elements of the design process that should not be individual considerations and part of some ad hoc process. They need to be integrated into the design and build process and not talked about as an abstract goal.
The problem is perpetuated by the Web Industry which has splintered into specialist niches that sell individual components. This thought occurred because of two events I attended: At a Usability Professionals Association (UPA) meeting there was a discussion why usability was not more valued and higher up the strategic agenda. At a Chinwag event I heard the same "why aren't we more important debate" from search consultants.
This debate is flawed. Why do we continue to abstract skill sets that we need for good web design? Usability, accessibility, search are necessary but individually not sufficient elements for successful web design.
If you briefed an architect to design a house, you would expect usability and accessibility to be an integrated part of the solution. You would expect the doors and windows to work without recourse to a usability specialist.
Alice forgot to brief the architect to make the door usable & accessible
There is no reason why web site or application design should be different. The starting point is what we need to achieve and how this relates to the behaviours and needs of the different audiences. At tmg, we don't focus on the design features but on the benefits to the user, that way once we understand how to solve the problem we can get the necessary people to collaborate to deliver an integrated solution that works.
Published on: Sep 15, 2009 by Wyndham Lewis