A colleague once brought my attention to an article that had a quote from the Roman author Juvenal in which he asked “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” This can be translated as, “Who will guard the guards themselves?” although there are several other adaptations. A sort of ‘who watches the watchers?’ – something that could be aimed at those in power all too often.
The phrase stuck in my head and I was reminded of it recently while looking at many graduate CV’s for a role which we currently have on our UX team. Many of the applicants have a Masters degree in some sort of HCI related discipline(s). I wondered what these courses entailed so began looking at the relevant University web pages and a single thought came to mind over and over again as I browsed – “Who on earth came up with this website?”.
One such page described themselves to be something of a “centre of excellence”. When a website looks like it hasn’t been changed since the inception of the internet it’s hardly a stunning endorsement of their excellence in anything, let alone HCI and design.
For courses allegedly teaching the very best in topics such as cognitive psychology, design and engagement, shouldn’t these websites reflect the highest standard in these practices? Instead I was met with countless usability issues, massive design flaws, incoherent information architecture and absolutely no user engagement whatsoever.
Do they not owe it to the students who visit the site for the first time, or navigate it on a regular basis, to present an immediate impression that they know what they are talking about and show this from the outset? If they cannot even hold themselves to these standards then what chance do students, who are perhaps starting in the area for the first time, have in learning and being inspired from what they see around them?
So, in answer to the question above, it appears that for the moment the guards are roaming wildly free.
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