Wek 5 Reading

Chapter 8 indicates the difficulties to have a conclusion when professionals from different fields are working together. Each person has a strong belief in what they think it would work, therefore it is very hard to have a compromise.  Given an example of a designer and a developer, if one asks them to build a website, the designer would pay attention on graphic details and design of course; and the developer would focus on functionality. It is because everyone tends to think others would like what they like, they think everyone else are just like them. Therefore the author suggested to let the people outside the team to test out the site, to see what the web users really want from the site. In chapter 9, the author suggested a lot of details on having a usability test. He claimed that there are an expensive way or a much cheaper way to commit the test; just depend on the company's need. In stead of hiring professional people to attend the test, he said, everyone that is a web user should be able to do the test perfectly. All they need is someone that would use the internet, it could be anyone. Moreover, the author suggested to do the test one morning once a month; the earlier the better( in terms of the website development process). The team should have a small meeting after the test the same day at lunch, so that everyone can come up with some problems and how to fix them.
Chapter 9 is an interesting chapter, it is all about how to cut cost and still do things professionally. It could be helping the small company a lot on saving cost, doing things easily and effectively.  After reading the chapter, I realize how important it is to conduct a usability test because when we are the builders, the website seem to make sense to us in every way. Yet when the users test it out, loads of problem could be found. When we get too used to the project we are working on everyday, we cannot find any problems on it anymore, it is when the test come into place.

* seven common usability testing mistakes
* 8 guidelines of usability testing
* Usability 101
* Website usability tips