In chapter 8 "The Farmer and the Cowman" talks about how development teams wastes a lot of time on debating what they like or disagrees, rather they should instead to put in the research and development to see if it works or not. The author calls this a "religious debate", it comes down to a lot of tension and arguments between team members. Everyone have a preference of what they like and they strongly enforce their opinions. He also explains that the phrase "Farmers vs. Cowmen" is like the analogy of web designers and web developers. To cure this religious debate he believes that what needs to be done is testing. I found this chapter very valuable as to whenever I would work in a team instead of debating about it we should do testing.
In chapter 9 "Usability testing on 10 cents a day" talks about how he is pro usability testers, because focus groups are opinions that a grouped together (which is ok for abstract audiences) whereas usability testers are individually testing to see if the site works or not and what needs to be improved. The chapter goes on into more details on certain topics about usability testings such as how many users to test, grading it on a curve, where to do the testing, who to test/observe, and shows examples of testing samples. I feel like it does make sense with a usability testing versus group focus because I know if I was in a group I am less likely to stand firm with my opinions and agree to others within the group.
Lists of tools for usability testing.
http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2011/10/20/comprehensive-review-usability-user-experience-testing-tools/
10 usability findings/guidelines.
http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2009/09/24/10-useful-usability-findings-and-guidelines/
Embracing other viewpoints to improve usability.
http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/06/test-usability-by-embracing-other-viewpoints/
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