Warmest Greetings,

:: Thursday, December 18, 2003 ::

Years ago my chiropractor told me I was always living on the "future track", meaning I was never here, in the present, but always running ahead, clearing obstacles and worrying about things that may or not EVER happen. So, when Jill Whalen made some guesses as to what she saw coming for the year 2003 for SEO, I was excited to see her mention usability and how it relates to SEO.

In yesterday's Advisor newsletter, Jill remarked on her predictions in SEO New Year's Predictions

Last year's prediction:

"The line between SEO and usability will become increasingly blurry,
as many will realize that a people-friendly site is also a
search-engine-friendly site."

What actually happened:

"There's definitely a lot more buzz about this lately. Usability was a
hot topic in many of the sessions at last week's SES conference.
Maybe soon we'll have a full-fledged usability session? Would be
well-attended, I'm sure."

Last year:

"Companies paying for full-service SEO will expect a total package
that includes usability as well as copywriting for sales conversions
and high rankings in the search engines."

What actually happened:

"I'm still not seeing that many clients asking specifically for this,
but the more knowledgeable clients do expect this sort of package.
The Web analytic software companies have certainly listened and have
all come out with great new versions to help track conversions. This
should make converting visitors to customers an even hotter topic in
2004."

I'd like to thank Jill for helping to get the message out there.

Clicktracks zoomed to front of the pack for web analysis in 2003. ROI conversions has become a very hot topic. But as for hiring website usability testing or seeking usability evaluations for even the basics or insight into potential trouble areas? Still a poor showing here. The emphasis seems to be on "What can usability do for me?" instead of "What can usability do for my customers and website visitors?".

While many SEO's are starting to understand how adding usability services can enhance their overall customer service for clients, mainstream companies with websites or Internet software applications still don't get the importance of making their software or sites bullet-proof. As anyone in the QA field knows we're the last folks to be considered and the first to be laid off.

In September I lost my biggest contract, which was 70% of my income unfortuntately. I was in charge of testing support for an online application used in the USA and Canada. When that company began laying off employees, they also cut back on contractors. As a subcontractor, I was cut out and all further development for the year ended due to the budget cuts. For some reason, which I still don't understand, I'm still copied on email communication and am watching what has become a horror movie whereby the clients are finding the software is breaking down or not functioning, and there's nobody to help them or manage the defects (which was my job).

Why in the world the actual usability of something is the last thing to be considered has always been a mystery to me. But laying off the usability tester first is not new. I was the first to be laid off from the QA dept by a software development company in 2001. Of the 15 QA engineers (including automation and performance), it was decided the usability one had to be cut first. I wrote about it in this thread and still remember that bittersweet day because it was the first time in my life I ever saw a group of men cry.

So as not to end this on a down note (would I do that to you!), I must share with you this article called Think Beyond—Technology By Alan K’necht

"The Code Jockey simply takes his assignment and starts coding as fast as he can. He doesn’t look at the impact of what he’s coding in the larger scheme of things.

Evidence of this work can be seen in user interfaces that work from a technical perspective, but fail from a user usability perspective."

and

"We all have worked with Eager Beaver IT personnel at one time or another in our careers. These are the people who believe that just because technology is new or the latest trend, it must be better and they immediately start pushing for its implementation without thinking beyond the implementation".

If you're a webmaster, you have to read the whole article. It's a "that's so true!" type, which will make you feel better if the day so far has been total crapola.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 12/18/2003 01:33:25 PM

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