Pitching usability to your organization

Abstract

What happens when an information technology (IT) division tries to introduce usability into its systems development process, especially in an organization whose core business is not software development? The result is usually an uphill battle to convince colleagues of the value of usability. This is an experience shared by countless usability practitioners. At industry conferences we gather together like self-help groups, sharing our experiences and frustration in trying to convince management of the benefits of usability. The constant complaint is "I just want to get on with my job, I'm tired of having to persuade people to 'do usability.'"

Usability Specialists as Boundary Spanners – An Appraisal of Usability Specialists’ Work in Multiparty Distributed Open Source Software Development Effort

“…On one hand, the HCI literature has touched upon the issue in the sense that it maintains that usability specialists have to act as usability champions and evangelists inside their organizations and try to seduce and convince numerous stakeholder groups, i.e. developers, managers, sales, marketing and documentation, to buy into usability [2,8,13,15,16,25,37]. On the other hand, the literature on multiparty IT development efforts reveals that there nowadays are parties from numerous organizations and even countries involved, representing different kinds of areas of expertise: not only technology, marketing and business, but also strategy, manufacturing, education, curation, meteorology etc.…”

“…Either it is emphasized that usability specialists should orchestrate design session and facilitate collaboration among developers and users [4,7,13,16,17,30] or usability specialists are positioned as evangelists that should advocate usability inside their organization even more broadly, targeting the management, sales, marketing and documentation [2,8,13,15,16,17,30,25,37]. The developers, in particular, should perceive usability specialists as team members and allies [25,37], but also the other stakeholder groups should be addressed [2,8,25, 37].…”

Usability Cost-Benefit Analysis: How Usability Became a Curse Word?

“…It is argued that one should take care that usability contributes to the business success of the development organizations [7], [13], [21], [22], [27]. Generally, usability is postulated as an important competitive edge in maturing SW markets [15], [24], [28].…”

“…Generally, usability is postulated as an important competitive edge in maturing SW markets [15], [24], [28]. However, it is also emphasized that one should ascertain that usability makes sense from the business perspective and is related to the achievement of key business goals [7], [13]. It is especially important to show the benefits achieved [21], [22], [27].…”

“…However, consideration of cost-benefit tradeoffs is also recommended [22], [24], [31]. Resources should be well planned and budgeted [3], [22], [24] and one should assure that usability does not increase development costs and time [7], [24].…”