I was reading some design and usability Websites today and came across an interersting article by Matthew Magain titled “Usability Double-whammy!”.
“Do you need to be an expert, with academic credentials to be able to apply this stuff [usability]?”, he asks. My reply would be no you do not need to be an expert, however when working with a design and usability specialist you can bring years of experience and specialized knowledge to the table.
I agree that IT professionals should learn usability best practices, however with all of the specialties in IT it is always smart to bring on an expert from the field when working on a larger project.
In the end, the article Usability Double-whammy! seems to me to be more of an advertisement for their product, however it sure doesn’t hurt if IT professionals have a baseline of knowledge when it comes to usability.