At the end of a long week in the Flickr post-slideshow launch forum, I wrote the following bits in response to people repeatedly asking if we usability tested the slideshow before we launched it.
Of course we didn’t!
I just went back and reread what I wrote, and it seems worth it to publish here as well.
Flickr has never “usability tested” anything, at least not in the sense of taking something to a usability lab.
I’ve not been (working) here from the beginning, but I have been a user since almost the beginning. The nature of Flickr has always been to make bold decisions based on experience and opinions, put them out there, see how people respond, and tweak things along the way.
Sometimes they’ve been wrong decisions, and many times they’ve been groundbreaking-amazing-totally-cool decisions. I like to think that the reason Flickr rocks so hard is that Stew, George and the rest of the original crew didn’t take things into a usability lab, or usability test anything in the “proper” sense. How boring!
At its very core, the name Flickr Gamma (used to be Flickr beta) represents this playful, malleable Way of Doing Things.
So while you thought my response was perfunctory (and not funny), and I’m sorry if it came across that way, it really is the truth.
I highly doubt anyone on the team will ever make the decision to bring back the old slideshow. This type of decision is no different than the major redesign of Flickr’s UI a year or so ago, or any other semi-major tweaks that have happened. People always freak out at change.
I hope that answers your question.
In the end, think about this: had we taken it to a usability lab, and some group of 7 people spent 5 minutes in front of it while a researcher took notes, they’d have had their say in that time period. And then, a bunch more people would think it sucked anyway!
Instead, you get to use it, and have public discussions with the people who designed and built it, give feedback, and hear our answers to your questions in semi-real time.
I think that’s better, no?
(I might get smacked here, but whatever)
I think usability labs breed sterile, boring and faceless products. I *wish* all of the things I use on a daily basis came with the ability to ask questions and help debug WITH the people who design and build them.In my humble little opinion, it’s a much better way to do things.
So, thanks for your feedback. As Flickr always has, we’re listening to you, and making changes where they make sense and where we see fit.
I certainly know that there are many exceptions and business cases that fly in the face of this way of thinking, but from my current viewpoint, which is where I want to be, I don’t think there’s a better way to design products.
One question that remains with me, which I’ve discussed with various folks from Adaptive Path and IDEO, is how do design firms, which are limited in their ability to deliver long-term value in this realm, um, adapting?