UPA and CHI surveys on usability processes

Briefly, we found that a few leading companies are doing well by following good models in their human factors efforts, and that certain key factors, including management leadership, organizations that are well-structured to take advantage o f key skills, and responsiveness to customers, enhance that progress. Sadly, these factors are generally not under the control of human factors professionals. This underscores a set o f chronic problems in a mass o f companies that is keeping existing human factors engineers' knowledge and skills from being utilized to design products with improved usability characteristics. These companies need to find a way to move forward.