The UPA Voice (Usability Professionals Assocation) is running a fun article by Cliff Anderson, on Jared Spool, best known for his User Interface Engineering (UIE) web site.

The early days of UIE involved quite a bit of evangelization. One of the presentations that Jared showed to potential clients was called “Software That Makes People Cry,” and was based on a test that UIE had run where a user did just that. He originally thought companies would “flock to do ,” but found he had to sell the idea and to tailor his message.

The article covers many of the lessons learned by UIE over its 17 history. Like the SEO/SEM industry, nothing in the Usability field is cut and dried, black or white, or chisled in stone forever either. Methods change, new findings bring to light fresh problems and solutions, testing doesn’t solve all problems, etc.

Addressing the client’s real business needs was another lesson: “You have to talk to what the issues are. Once we realized that, everything changed.” Currently, Jared points out, “every recommendation we make we have to pinpoint to a business objective, usually something to do with increased revenue, or some other activity obviously tied to the success of the business. If we see something now that is frustrating users, but we can’t figure out how it’s affecting business, we don’t report it.”

(Read full article: Thumbnail: Jared Spool)

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The Yellow Shoes have landed. Randfish has arrived safely to SES San Jose after a series of botched flights and weather hassles. Sounds like you’re having a blast, Rand!

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Web site Navigation “Spin the bottle” selection technique…A Study of Website Navigation Methods is causing great discussion at Cre8asiteforums.