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Griping is just as important as formal usability testing.
Griping occurs because a user has a problem. Just because it is not heard
within the confines of a test/study environment does not make it less
meaningful. Usability tests have their context as does griping. Griping
can often catch things before focus testing begins.
ASIDE: I think griping is downplayed because of the baggage that comes with
it. Nasty emotional crap (this UI is lousy, I can't do anything, blah,
blah, blah). You have to listen harder to griping to get the context of the
problems. Ask any support engineer.
A usability engineer/specialist/whatever has to hear it all and make
decisions based on their background in usability. That background may
include tech writing, psychology, design, testing, architecture, technical
support, engineering, etc. Usually it has a lot of one and some of all the
others.
I think the reason many tech writers view themselves as usability "experts"
is that their background contains much of the same experience and education,
with the exception of psychology. This cannot be overlooked, but speaking
from a rhetorical perspective, getting along as a tech writer in an
engineering world often provides many seat of the pants psychology lessons.
This does not mean that a tech writer is qualified as a usability expert.
Most writers I know wouldn't have a clue about setting up a controlled focus
test for a UI. However, a tech writers gripes are often better informed
than other internal gripes. Thus the usability connection. Tech writers
are sometimes the next best thing to a usability expert.
Just as some background. My company helped develop the (hopefully soon to
be release) channel guide for a major cable network. We developed the UI
requirements, a UI prototype, a UI simulator, and then held 4 or 5 rounds of
usability focus tests in two markets in the country. This was enough to get
the UI funded and finished. The next step will be to run it in trial
markets to "friendlies" (i.e., cable network employees). Then the trials
will expand to Family and Friends and finally to full deployment in large
markets. At each point, the UI will be reviewed and potentially tweaked.
If tweaked, the UI starts over at the same point (i.e., back to friendlies,
family and friends, etc.).
Each focus test provided a general feel for the UI and provided specific
feedback on features that the usability experts thought were questionable.
In each focus test case, the UI was changed ever so slightly. All the
feedback has been incorporated and the UI is in the cable network's hands.
As I have said, I am not a usability expert, but I often hire them to do
real testing of UI's.
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