Joel on Software

2001/05/08

People seem to think that just because I advocate eating your own dog food, that means that I don't approve of usability testing.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Cheap "hallway" usability testing is one of the 12 requirements of The Joel Test. There's a whole chapter on usability testing, and how to do it the right way, in my upcoming book.

Carl Zetim wrote a critique of my article called "Eat Your Own Dog Food, but Not as a Substitute for Usability". Sorry, you can't read it, he works for Giga and they charge for their ideas. His critique basically said that eating your own dog food is "one of the most pernicious barriers to doing true usability," and then he gives the unlikely example of Microsoft, which actually does tons of usability testing.

Just because I said "eat your own dog food" doesn't mean I don't advocate usability testing. It's just a logical fallacy. They could have said "Eat Your Own Dog Food, but Not If It Means The Dog Will Go Hungry." It just doesn't follow.

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You’re reading Joel on Software, stuffed with years and years of completely raving mad articles about software development, managing software teams, designing user interfaces, running successful software companies, and rubber duckies.

About the author.

I’m Joel Spolsky, founder of Fog Creek Software, a New York company that proves that you can treat programmers well and still be highly profitable. Programmers get private offices, free lunch, and work 40 hours a week. Customers only pay for software if they’re delighted. We make FogBugz, an enlightened project management system designed to help great teams develop brilliant software, and Fog Creek Copilot, which makes remote desktop access easy.