Edible/Usable

A Note on Methodology - What do I Mean by "Usability?"

What exactly is usability?  The term is most often applied to Human Computer Interactions (HCI), but has also been extended to tools and spaces.  The self-appointed and controversial 'guru' of usability Jakob Nielsen defined usability in 2003 as:

"a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. The word "usability" also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process."

I have a lot of issues with Neilsen and some of his pronouncements of what is and isn't usable.  If we all listened to Jakob Neilsen and did exactly what he said, the web would still look like it did in 1999, or it would look like his site - which I think is nearly impossible to use.  It's hard to find items, difficult to read and almost everything costs over $100 bucks.  It is his business, so he should take his own advice.

That said, I think his dedication to the idea of usability, his ability to sell usability to "C" level executives who make decisions, and his introduction to basic usability methodology has helped UX professionals. The idea that the usability of web sites can be evaluated and measured by assessing  different components or metrics is a sound one, and one that I've used often in studies I've conducted.  Usability studies are generally described as 'quantitative' exercises (vs. qualitative studies) - one where you can assign numeric values, apply formulas and come back with a meaningful set of numbers that will tell you whether your application or product is usable or not.  As with most practices, this can be taken to the quantitative extreme or to the qualitative opposite.  In my opinion, both methods have value, and which method you use depends on what you're trying to accomplish with the testing or evaluation.

On this blog, I won't be using calculators, but I am going to use a set of metrics to organize my observations.  I'll be evaluating things by the following 6 metrics:

1. Aesthetics - this will include ambiance, design, presentation and general beauty
2. Value - did I feel like I got ripped of, or would I pay for this again?
3. Reliability - can I use or visit this tool/place repeatedly and get the same results?
4. Task Completion - was I able to easily finish my cooking task, or finish my meal (ok, this one's a little shaky as a restaurant metric, but humor me.)
5. Discovery - was there something surprising about this place or thing?  Was it something that made me say "I'm so happy I found this!"
6. Satisfaction - overall, how satisfying an experience was it to use this product or eat this food?

Maybe I'll come up with a scale in the future, but for now, these will be guidelines. 

The Inspiration for this Blog - Post #1

Earlier this week, I was in Tribeca after a dentist appointment.  I had a few hours to kill before meeting with a potential client.  It was pouring rain, cold, slushy and generally unpleasant outside, so wandering around window shopping didn't seem so inviting, and I didn't really have enough time to go home then come back for my appointment (the only downside to living in Brooklyn, in my opinion).  I passed a Le Pain Quotidien on W. Broadway, so I decided to stop in for a late (second) breakfast, and to while away some time.

I ordered my favorite item there - the single soft-boiled egg with toast(s), and while I was enjoying it, I realized that this was probably my favorite thing to have for breakfast.   I also realized that part of what prompted this particular realization while enjoying this particular soft-boiled egg was the experience of eating a soft-boiled egg at Le Pain Quotidien.  For anyone not familiar with LPQ, they are actually a chain of Cafe's originally from Belgium, and their primary focus is on making really great bread (thus Le Pain).  They also primarily use organic ingredients, make a lot of their own condiments and products (jams, spreads, granola, etc), and in all of my experiences, make very simple but very delicious cafe/bakery style food.

Being an IA, I started cataloging what it was about the experience of eating at LPQ that made it particularly pleasant:  they provided jams and spreads on the table without me having to ask.  Each table had salt and pepper grinders.  The menus were easy to read, explained what is in each item, and provided calorie counts (now a NY city law for restaurants with 15 or more locations, and possibly soon a national requirement).  They have a well defined brand, and one that appeals to me - Simple French rustic - that they have consistently applied to all of the myriad spaces they have throughout NYC.  The service was friendly and efficient, there was never any pressure for me to move on or order more food (I was there for over 2 hours), it was relatively quiet with low classical music playing, and on this cold day, it was warm and cozy.

Since I went back to independent consulting work last fall, I've been thinking that I should start writing a blog- ideally a blog that discussed or analyzed the type of work I do.   Keeping your finger on the pulse of what is happening on the interwebs, and being able to synthesize and comment on practice, process and theory of experience design is a requirement for a UX consultant.  The problem is, there are tons of UX blogs out there, some more personal, some for specific niche markets, some are merely marketing tools for companies, and some better than others.  I find a lot of these compelling and interesting, but I also find them hard to differentiate and really difficult to keep up with reading them.  So how could I exacerbate the problem by starting a new "UX" centered blog?

I love food and I love cooking.  As I was enjoying my last piece of LPQ toast with their Brunette spread, I thought, "why not start a blog about the user experience of eating and cooking?"  I quickly came up with a long list of things I could possibly write about.  

There is actually one blog that I found that does this already (curses!) which is actually quite good, but a little more philosophical and theoretical that I plan on being here.  I hope to focus more on the idea of 'usability' (I'll write more about my methodology later) of eating and cooking.  This won't be a restaurant review site, but I will be writing about restaurants, stores, and cooking tools and about what makes an eating or cooking experience particularly good or bad.

We'll see how it goes...