usability panic

i couldn’t sleep last night after running my first usability test with a consumer through our next client UI. now i’m exhausted on top of being irritated.

when i go over my notes right now it wasn’t all that bad, but what has me in a panic is not the specific problems that she pointed out but just that we don’t have a good process for avoiding them in the first place. this next release is going the same way the last release went. most of the problems that will show up in the beta test were all things i covered in the initial UI spec but the engineers took only what they wanted and basically created their own design. and then there won’t be enough time to fix the problems that result. if i had confidence in an ongoing interest in and commitment to good usability i wouldn’t be so frustrated. but it’s a constant battle and i have to fight for most every minute detail.