The whiteboard: seven great myths of usability

What's your favorite usability myth? These days mine is the one that claims that automated tools can substitute for empirical testing. Marc Chrusch is a collector and connoisseur of these pervasive, persuasive, but ultimately ill-founded beliefs. In this guest column Marc explores and explodes his seven favorite myths. In an e-mail to a former colleague who has asked for some usability advice, Marc explains why these beliefs are mistaken and gives some hints for how to counter them when you encounter them. Hello, Joe! It was good to get your e-mail. Congratulations on your promotion to director and your increased project responsibility. You asked for some advice on how to ensure that your applications are able to be used by your users. It seems that all my ranting and raving when we worked together had an impact. I'm thrilled about that! Obviously, I can't possibly provide you with a full grounding in usability and human–computer interface (HCI) design in the short space of this note. Instead I'll discuss some of the statements I've frequently heard from managers, developers, and others who don't realize the benefits of applying usability activities during software design and development. I'll explain why these are myths, using some examples from the projects we've worked on together. Curiously, the very people who voice these beliefs often