Subject:
Incorporating Usability into the Design
Process
How Do Companies Incorporate Usability
into Their Design Process?
There is no standard way of integrating
usability into a company's design process. Every company has a
different "corporate culture," a different customer/product mix, and a
different product development methodology.
However, despite company differences, you can
recognize common aspects of usability implementation in the following two
articles, one from IBM and the other from a small consultancy
firm.
--------------------------------------------------
(1) Market Definition (2) Task Analysis (3) Competitive Evaluation (4) Design
and Walk-through (5) Evaluation and Validation (6) Benchmark Assessment
Here is a brief overview of the six
stages of IBM’s user-centered design process.
User-Centered Design Process
http://www-3.ibm.com/ibm/easy/eou_ext.nsf/Publish/19
--------------------------------------------------
A Consultancy's Approach to Usability
“Information & Design is a usability consultancy based in Melbourne,
Australia. We specialise in helping companies produce usable web sites and
software to increase productivity, customer satisfaction, and sales.”
In these four brief articles, Information &
Design explains their particular approach to usability enhancement, which
includes participatory design workshops, contextual enquiry, usability testing,
and affinity diagramming.
(1)
Information & Design’s participatory design workshops
provide a forum for identifying issues. They present a sample agenda in this
first article.
What is a Participatory Design workshop?
http://www.infodesign.com.au/usability/participatorydesign.html
--------------------------------------------------
(2)
Contextual enquiry
involves observation of expert users performing their tasks, gathering of data,
and analysis of that data. Information & Design explains that CE is
appropriate whenever you need to develop or communicate an understanding of the
users of an existing or proposed system.
What is Contextual Enquiry?
http://www.infodesign.com.au/usability/contextualenquiry.html
--------------------------------------------------
(3)
Information & Design
suggests guidelines for conducting usability tests.
What is Usability Testing?
http://www.infodesign.com.au/usability/usabilitytesting.html
--------------------------------------------------
(4)
“Affinity Diagramming is a
very simple but powerful technique for grouping and understanding large amounts
of information.” Information & Design tells how to conduct an
affinity
diagramming session.
What is Affinity Diagramming?
http://www.infodesign.com.au/usability/affinitydiagramming.html
