Now that I think about it, I am definitely from the design tradition, but I learned many of my UX/usability skills from people who had a HCI background.

I am indebted to these people … and yet … I always felt they had a blind spot, not just for design aesthetics, but even for other things that come naturally to designers.

For example, usability engineers talk about ‘heuristic’ reviews and I, too, have come to use this phrase. But it is not natural to me — because it is not the customer’s language. And, as a writer/designer by instinct, I don’t like to use jargon. I think engineers are drawn to jargon.

But don’t get me started on the foibles of designers…