An Interdisciplinary Approach for Successfully Integrating Human-Centered Design Methods into Development Processes Practiced by Industrial Software Development Organizations

In a world where competitors are just a mouse-click away, human-centered design (HCD) methods change from a last minute add-on to a vital part of the software development lifecycle. However, case studies indicate that existing process models for HCD are not prepared to cope with the organizational obstacles typically encountered during the introduction and establishment of HCD methods in industrial software development organizations. Knowledge about exactly how to most efficiently and smoothly integrate HCD methods into development processes practiced by software development organizations is still not available. To bridge this gap, we present the experience-based human-centered design lifecycle, an interdisciplinary effort of experts in the fields of software engineering, human-computer interaction, and process improvement. Our approach aims at supporting the introduction, establishment and continuous improvement of HCD processes in software development organizations. The approach comprises a process model, tools, and organizational measures that promote the utilization of HCD methods in otherwise technology-centered development processes and facilitate organizational learning in HCD. We present results of a case study where our approach has been successfully applied in a major industrial software development project.