… that is exactly what I told my friend when the engine of his 1989 Jaguar blew not long after he bought the car in a wave of enthusiasm. He ended up getting the engine re-built for more money than the car had cost when he said that he should have known this might happen. The heat gauge was running high when he had tested the car and he had read a blog before he bought the car that had warned people to run, not walk, away from Jags prone to overheating.
The idea of rose coloured glasses reducing your ability to see red flags made me think of usability testing. This is especially important when you are testing your own work. Unless you are VERY careful, it can be really easy to bias a usability test when you are writing the script, observing the user during the test, and analyzing the data. I’ve also noticed that when I test the work of a colleague I respect, I need to pay close attention.
Why test your own work? Sometimes you don’t have a choice… There have also been instances when I have tested work on specialized systems I have helped build where my in-depth familiarity of the site was as much of an advantage as my bias was a disadvantage. For example, when testing thematic access on specialized systems (ie food safety standards and legislation) I was extremely familiar with the content that was available. This allowed me to determine whether the lack of relevant results people were seeing was because the system wasn’t retrieving information that was available, or if the system was accurately informing the user that the information wasn’t available.
Some techniques I use when I have to test my own work include having someone less involved proof the usability script and observe a few of the tests to point out where I appear to be biased or not as neutral as I should be. I’ve also found it useful to make mental notes about the things I really like about the site or feel especially confident about before the test. These are areas I try to look at more critically than others…
What techniques do you use?
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