Diary of a Superfluous Man:
Diary of a Superfluous Man: "People used to be willing to put up with frustrating usability experiences, convinced that it was their fault technology products took so much time to learn. No more. Today people are as sophisticated as they are ruthless. Frequent interaction with the technology of our always-connected world has given users a sense of power, freedom, and control. People have the option to disengage at any time and demand that technology interact with them in familiar ways. People now expect the applications they use and the Web sites they visit to be usable. Period. Usability today is table stakes %u2013 it is what is required to let you into the party to play.
So why do we as a community of designers spend so much of our time and effort debating, blogging, attending conferences and writing essays about something that is akin to %u201Cshould the television turn on when the power button is pushed?%u201D Everybody agrees that the products we design should be usable."