Chapter 8. “The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends”

WHY MOST ARGUMENTS ABOUT USABILITY ARE A WASTE OF TIME, AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

One man likes to push a plough The other likes to chase a cow But that’s no reason why they can’t be friends!

—OKLAHOMA!, OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II

Left to their own devices, Web teams aren’t notoriously successful at making decisions about usability questions. Most teams end up spending a lot of precious time rehashing the same issues over and over.

Consider this scene:

A comic strip is shown with the strip titled “Web Design Funnies” at top left and labeled “Today’s episode: ‘Religious Debates’” at top right.

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