It’s like déjà vu all over again. ~Yogi Berra
Yep. That’s me in my fabulous Nehru tux getting ready for my prom date. I was about as spiffy then as spiffy could be. The tux was rented, but I had my regular Nehrus in the closet. They were next to my bell-bottoms, tie-dyes and 8-tracks.
What happened?
The Nehru went out of style around 11:55 p.m. the night of the prom and I had to hang on to my bell-bottoms and tie-dyes for about 30 years for them to come back around into fashion. The 8-tracks? They gave way to those newfangled cassettes.
How could I have been so wrong about the future of Nehrus and 8-tracks? Actually, when I think about it, I was wrong about a lot of things: The Afro perm I thought would look spectacular on me forever, the Beatles never breaking up, my best friend Kevin and I being pals for life, the Osborn 55-pound “portable” computer, and the 8-track tape player (which cost me a week’s salary) I had installed in my car. Naturally I thought my prom date would never change.
But in spite of my convictions at the time I was about as wrong as wrong could be. The good news is I am not alone.
We love a usability study as much as the next person. But we love well-designed, elegant studies that rightfully point out their own limitations and are printed in peer-reviewed journals most of all. We have less love for studies that act as propaganda, or researchers who draw conclusions not supported by their own data.