I think there is great benefit to having an independent (person or
group) do the testing of a design. I also think there is benefit to
having product managers generate the use cases designers work to
solve for. Additionally, having the back end development team do the
QA is troublesome.
Some level of self fulfilling prophesy is likely to find its way in.
Isn't that why we go to someone else for things as simple as prof
reading? What I don't think, is that it is necessarily cause for
inditement. They may very well have had separate staff do the
testing. If you understand how agencies work, then you know that it
is very much about billables... and with that you must have
deliverables. It is very rare for an agency to recommend another
group in that situation.
Mark
On Nov 9, 2009, at 11:35 AM, Paul Bryan wrote:
Recently I was on an e-commerce strategy project. I received a
usability test report that the previous agency had produced after
testing their own design work. I went back to the source tapes and
there seemed to be a dramatic difference between the level of
problems users were having in the sessions, and the resulting report.
I know it's convenient for e-commerce site owners to get an
integrated package, esp. when large MSA's are in place. And trying
to keep ahead of Agile cycles puts strain on the schedule and number
of partners. But I'm just wondering if readers of this list feel
like there is an inherent conflict of interest, or if testing is
viewed as a normal component of a design partner relationship.
Paul Bryan
Usography (http://www.usography.com)
Blog: Virtual Floorspace (http://www.virtualfloorspace.com)
Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/uxexperts
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