Does anybody out there teach usability testing? Does this community of webloggers and academics need to know about the difference between performing usability testing and simply asking users what they think about a web page?

Professional Usabilty Engineers vs. Guru Seminars (Charles L. Mauro)

"Professional usability engineering and testing is a well-established development discipline that has been used extensively to create some of our most successful military and commercial systems. With the maturation of the web as a delivery model for information and E-Commerce, the formal science of usability will become increasingly important. This paper discusses the return on investment (ROI) implications of integrating formal usability testing methods into web development projects.



Being critical of pronouncements delivered by web gurus is part of the ongoing backlash against the efforts of corporations to "monetize" the Internet. Mauro's white paper naturally concludes that his company's proprietary combination of online & lab-based usability testing is a better alternative to paying big bucks to attend seminars that claim to turn just about anyone into an in-house usability testing experts. Is Mauro any different from the bigger gurus (like Jakob Nielsen) whom he's trying to dethrone?

According to Ron Zeno, "Mauro has written a highly informative report that has a great deal high-quality information. Unfortunately, his solution of rigorous usability testing conducted by highly educated usability professionals will appear impractical and dismissive of common usability practices and practitioners."