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By far, the hardest part of a new technology is getting started. This blog (Currently called the Fifth Constituency) has been on the drawing boards for over six months. At one point, a team was assembled. The action items in our to do list are so old that they have evolved into that kind of spousal relationship you get into with some of your action list. They nag about neglect but not loudly enough to overcome the learning resistant inertia.
Why didn't the blog get started in November when it first made the AI list? What happened to the team? Why did it take so long to get a teensy bit of momentum?
Like all new pieces of technology, the blog seemed to have inertia of its own. We guessed and speculated about what it might be like to have one. We encouraged others with little response. The damned thing seemed to resist us.
We wonder why we always forget that commitment is never complete. It's a decision made repeatedly followed by the required actions of the moment. Somehow, as we are prone to do, we avoided the plunge and rationalized our avoidance with the usual excuses.
It's too much work. The software is primitive. What if it doesn't work out? At times, pure, unadulterated procrastination was the simple truth.
At any rate, we began the blog in earnest on Friday afternoon. By late Saturday, the categories were being populated and the rudimentary template was working. There are still issues of membership, email access, content routines and so on to be solved.
But, the thing is rolling.
It's a solid reminder that large chunks of usability involve the internal motives of the user. No ammount of usability will completely solve procrastination. It is, however, the most fertile ground for usability research. The questions are
"What is the value to the user and can we help her see it?"
"Why should a user invest time in learning our peculiarities?"
"Why?" Indeed.
And, from what we can tell, why is the one question that most usability experts avoid like the plague. Related Info?. 
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