I am the proud father of two boys Sam, age 11, and Henry, age 7, and have been married for over 17 years.
A web designer and developer for over 18 years, I am currently a usability professional for New York Life and have recently completed my Masters in Human Computer Interaction or HCI.
When you tell people you do usability work, or user centered design what you usually get is a quizzical look. HCI is not like being a doctor or a programmer. Those are concepts people can wrap their mind around. Usability on the other hand is something most people have not heard about.
The short answer I like to give is it is the study of "where to put the button" on a website. This people understand, or at least politely nod. Realistically, usability helps make interacting with the computer easier, quicker, and lets you complete tasks and recover easily from errors when they occur.
