Top 10 Usability Myths

Knight & Jefsioutine, HCI and EUPA Conference 2002

John Knight & Marie JefsioutineUser-LabBirmingham Institute of Art & Design

The top 10 usability myths


“What’s great about the web is that we don’t yet know the rules” Dale Dougherty

“I’m really wary of creating standards that everyone needs to live by” Valerie Casey

•Usability is top 10 lists


•Usability is Jakob Nielsen“Usability gurus are 99% bad” Paul Wigely

“there are extremists and I say that the extremists’ time is over” Valerie Casey


•Usability is common sense“While some of the book’s guidelines are

common sense others are banal” Martyn Perks (of Homepage Usability)

“Lack of research time and money in the design industry has made people hungry for simple solutions” Ann Light


•Usability is about stupid users“stupid people skew results” Dale Dougherty

“Don’t Make Me Think exemplifies the diminished view of the user, … an impatient, harassed imbecile unable to cope with the slightest cognitive stress ” Ben Eliot


•Usability limits innovation“the usability movement on the web [almost]

censors original content” Valerie Casey

“innovations can all too often be dismissed as contrary to agreed standards ” James Woudhuysen


•Usability is about download times

“speed must be the overriding design criterion” Jakob Nielsen

“the web has been so heavily criticised for download time…[it has] led to standardising the way Web pages are made” Valerie Casey


•Usability is dominating design“Usability rules the web” Jakob Nielsen

“there’s a perception that usability gets in the way of development. That is a perception that kills usability” John Rhodes


•Usability focuses on problems“Usability is often about generating or

fighting Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt” John Rhodes

“..at the expense of breakthroughs in content, concept or technology” Martyn Perks


•Usability is a luxury“The first things to get cut in the

development process are documentation, testing and usability” John Rhodes

“agencies.. with their .. usability department and fancy espresso machines all housed in swanky offices dripping in overheads “ Chris Tomlinson


•Usability is a fad“I think that usability was a hot issue, and it’s

fading because people are getting used to computers “ Valerie Casey

“Usability as we know it is dying. It is outdated, misunderstood, and it faces very serious challenges in web and software development circles.” John Rhodes