Usability when designing a site - who is responsible?
The question that I would like to discuss with the community: who in the Internet-studio should take care of the usability of the customer's site when designing it? A project manager or a designer? Who should decide - this block is in the left corner, and this one is in the right corner? Who should have the knowledge that user attention is concentrated in this area of the page, but no one will look into that corner?
The answer is that a usability specialist should take care of this. In reality, such a position does not exist even in large studios, not to mention small companies.
In reality, either the designer or the project manager is engaged in such work. Each option has its advantages and disadvantages.
If everything is given at the mercy of the designer: then there must be a qualitative description of all the services and functions, wherever and where, in order for the designer to understand 100% what modules will work. Secondly, the designer usually does not communicate directly with the client, he does not know the peculiarities of his business, the features of the company. A project manager sets tasks for him. Thirdly, the issue of usability is wider than the possibilities of design. For example, beautiful correct addressing is already beyond the authority of the designer.
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In the case when design and usability rests entirely on the shoulders of the project manager, we get a number of undeniable advantages. One person is responsible for the structure of the site and for the location of the blocks on the page, and for the correct addressing, and for the correct output of page headers, etc. The manager has an idea about the client's business, potential users of the site, that is, this is the person who should see the picture of the project as a whole. In the technical task for the designer, he makes prototypes of pages on which everything is clearly and clearly “what kind of block, how, where and why”.
I use both hands for the project manager to be responsible for usability, but only one thing confuses me: the role of the designer then comes down to drawing the prototypes that the manager made. That is, no creative thought, no step from the TK. It turns out then that all the ideas of design also come from the project manager?
Of course, there is a third way: a symbiosis of thought between a project manager and a designer. But this path seems to me the most thorny. The designer in this case must actively connect to the development of the resource before writing the TOR.
The answer is that a usability specialist should take care of this. In reality, such a position does not exist even in large studios, not to mention small companies.
In reality, either the designer or the project manager is engaged in such work. Each option has its advantages and disadvantages.
If everything is given at the mercy of the designer: then there must be a qualitative description of all the services and functions, wherever and where, in order for the designer to understand 100% what modules will work. Secondly, the designer usually does not communicate directly with the client, he does not know the peculiarities of his business, the features of the company. A project manager sets tasks for him. Thirdly, the issue of usability is wider than the possibilities of design. For example, beautiful correct addressing is already beyond the authority of the designer.
')
In the case when design and usability rests entirely on the shoulders of the project manager, we get a number of undeniable advantages. One person is responsible for the structure of the site and for the location of the blocks on the page, and for the correct addressing, and for the correct output of page headers, etc. The manager has an idea about the client's business, potential users of the site, that is, this is the person who should see the picture of the project as a whole. In the technical task for the designer, he makes prototypes of pages on which everything is clearly and clearly “what kind of block, how, where and why”.
I use both hands for the project manager to be responsible for usability, but only one thing confuses me: the role of the designer then comes down to drawing the prototypes that the manager made. That is, no creative thought, no step from the TK. It turns out then that all the ideas of design also come from the project manager?
Of course, there is a third way: a symbiosis of thought between a project manager and a designer. But this path seems to me the most thorny. The designer in this case must actively connect to the development of the resource before writing the TOR.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/45644/
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