Art and Business of Speech Recognition: Creating the Noble Voice, The

Chapter Eight. Usability Testing

You don't hear things that are bad about your company unless you ask. It is easy to hear good tidings, but you have to scratch to get the bad news.

—THOMAS J. WATSON, SR., IBM EXECUTIVE

It's strange—not to mention exasperating—to think that a company would go so far as to conceive, design, and manufacture a product without ever ensuring that people can use it, and just as important, that they like using it. But if my personal experience is any indication, it happens with alarming frequency. I can't count the number of times I've used an appliance and thought to myself, “Surely, the people who designed or produced this have never tried to use it.”

A case in point: my clock/radio. It looks great. It sounds great. ...