It's All About The User

I'll preface this post by saying that user-interface (UI) design and human-computer interaction (HCI) are, to me, the most interesting "fields" in computer science and technology.

The office is very lucky that I'm not more like this guy, HCI expert Bill Buxton. He's a staunch believer that UI issues/defects should rarely appear to a tester because more time should be spent by developers/designers to perfect the design.

It would be wonderful if they were there as quality control to ensure that a great design was executed greatly. That is almost never the case. Hence, they scramble to try and weave the proverbial silk purse out of the sow’s ear.

On some levels, I agree. However, I wonder about the risks involving a dedicated design guru (or small team) with our process. How would we then incorporate our QA processes with that?

-KRM