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The Politics of Usability

A recent publication (1) on usability in industrial and commercial settings contains chapters by consultants from Corporate Solutions. These chapters show how usability can be cost-justified, structured and built into the fabric of an organisation or product team.

The abstracts for these chapters are reproduced below.

Selling Usability Services - Dermot Browne

This chapter discusses the issue of how to sell usability services. While selling is often considered a dirty word it is a necessary activity for usability professionals, be they salaried or self employed, who believe in the value of their work. This chapter is aimed at both the usability professional and the potential recipients of usability services. The best consultancy assignments are those where each party understands the motives and limitations of the other and where business is conducted in an open and responsive manner. The earliest of meetings between consultant and client set the standard for their subsequent relations and that is why these meetings are so important. This chapter discusses these first meetings and provides a perspective on how a usability consultant should aim to influence these meetings towards a productive conclusion.

A Structured Approach to User Interface Design - let the clients see the benefits not the methodology - Dermot Browne & John Friend

The belief that user-centred design practices are central to the successful delivery of information technology is widespread. But this view is rarely justified in terms of successful applications of these practices in industry. This chapter helps redress the imbalance by reporting experiences from a project that applied a structured and user-centred approach to the design of an interactive computer system with an international law firm and some of the lessons learned.

Cultivating an Effective Client Relationship to Promote a User-Centred Culture - Nichole Simpson

This chapter describes the practical issues associated with establishing a relationship with a product group for the timely, pragmatic and effective application of human factors advice and consultancy. The chapter takes the form of a site study based upon experiences gained while acting in the role of internal consultant in a large telecommunications equipment provider. The role involved providing a range of human factors support to the organisation's research and development establishment. The study touches upon methodological and management issues and covers the process from initiating contact, through the delivery of service and after-care. The information is presented in a series of stages that may be encountered in the process of setting up, delivering into and maintaining a relationship with a product group. The chapter concludes with a summary of the salient features of a successful relationship of this kind. Throughout, the emphasis is on what was learned in particular project situations, and how this may be generalised to address an issue common throughout human factors consulting - how to cultivate an effective client relationship to promote a user-centred culture.

1. From "The Politics of Usability", Trenner, L. & Bawa, J. (editors), 1998, and reproduced with the kind permission of Springer Verlag.

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