What should be the qualities of a good professional usability?

e of us who are involved in creating useful, convenient products come with different backgrounds, work in different conditions and have a wide range of technical skills.

Despite these differences, our recent conversations with colleagues from the Association of Usability Professionals at the annual conference show that the strength of usability is the experience and personality characteristics that follow from the diversity of our origins. The best usability experts demonstrate well-developed skills that have been honed by experience and attack problems with perseverance, pragmatism, empathy and a sense of humor.

Required skills.

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Usability practices — even if they are new to the field — have a certain degree of technical knowledge or experience in a subset of basic skills. Specific skills should vary greatly depending on the nature of the role in a large organization, for example, different skills are needed that become critical under different working conditions, in a consulting firm, at home, in a team. In some organizations, usability practitioners are experts in either research or design, while others sit with one ass on both chairs. These variations affect the relative importance of the skills outlined below.

• Research skills: Usability testing, interview and ethnographic observations are essential skills for research. Enhanced marketing research skills, such as pre-survey and focus groups, are also considered helpful.

• Analytical skills: the ability to benefit from research data and determine the benefits for design are essential companions for research skills, and are also of great importance for those who do not conduct research directly. Analytical skills are also needed to correct errors, instead of user research, identifying problem areas is one of the basic abilities.

• Design skills: Tools for user-oriented design include: development scenarios, storyboards, modeling, wireframing and prototyping. Using these tools to create elegant design solutions requires wise problem solving and the ability to simultaneously “see both the forest and the trees.” Technical knowledge with software like PowerPoint, Visio, Dreamweaver, or Axure is useful for bringing design solutions to life.

• Knowledge of Interactive Technologies: In particular, web applications, knowledge of specific issues like cross-platform features and search engine optimization are considered valuable skills for usability professionals.

• Business Leadership: Just like great interfaces speak the language of the user, effective usability professionals understand major business relationships with the products they develop. Usability specialists with managerial skills give the user a “place at the table” with representatives of the business community and participation in technology.

• Communication: Work in our area is carried out on the basis of communication, whether verbally or in writing, formal or informal. Usability experts must be balanced, clear and convincing to hear and understand.

• Interpersonal skills: At home and consulting working conditions, usability revolves around relationships. To build an effective relationship, usability specialists must hone their high-scaled and situational sensitivity.

Experience: was there, did it. .

The best usability specialists offer a wide range of experience in the most varied types of products, technologies and working conditions. A variety of education is also a common feature of usability teams.

• Experience: Good design often shows how problem solving in other areas may apply to a given task. Experience in user-oriented design with a wide variety of types of products, technologies and working conditions provides a larger canvas for drawing these analogies. Diverse experience is also useful for managing the many problems that arise when maintaining a structure through the development process.

• Education: Where do the best usability professionals come from - IT, psychology, graphics or marketing? The answer is yes. Individual specific education seems less relevant than the ability to incorporate the educational aspect of subjects in solving design problems. Teams made up of individuals from different backgrounds can be most effective, provided they respect each other's unique contributions, and speak a common user-oriented design language.

Personality: Achieving this Goal

Although research and design skills are necessary for the usability of specialists, and experience broadens the scope of application of these skills over time, but the most successful professionals form a number of personal qualities that uniquely help them to solve the tasks of this profession.

• Perseverance: Good design comes from persistent determination to find the optimal solution to the problem, and persist in continuing to work until this solution is implemented. Although we cannot always do without compromise, tenacious usability specialists are the most tireless advocates for the user.

• Pragmatism: As a counterpoint to perseverance, effective usability experts understand the real boundaries of the problem, and how far they can push these boundaries in the interests of users. Those who are process-minded and detail-oriented can work within these practical limitations to get an effective and realistic solution.

• Empathy: the ability to look at the problem from the other side is the main quality for user-oriented design. Emotional sensitivity and a desire to accept other points of view is necessary to use empathy as a design tool.

• Sense of humor: User-oriented design is a very difficult task. A sense of humor helps usability professionals in the conditions of solving analytical, technical and political problems. The ability to appreciate and express wit helps practitioners to improvise, stay flexible and feel more comfortable. Humor is also a valuable communication tool.

So what makes a good usability professional? With the “suitcase” of basic skills, the most effective practitioners use the breadth of experience, which indicates commitment, pragmatism, empathy, and the sense of humor with which they approach to solving user interface problems.

What do you think should be the qualities of a good professional usability?