Evaluating the user-centredness of development organisations: conclusions and implications from empirical usability capability maturity assessments

Abstract Improving the position and effectiveness of user-centred design, UCD, in software and product development is a challenge in many companies. One step towards improvements is to carry out a usability capability maturity, UCM, assessment to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a development organisation in user-centred design. This article reports the lessons learnt from 11 empirical UCM assessments of RD the last assessments were carried out using a new KESSU model that evolved during the research. It was found that the assessment model, its interpretation, and the viewpoints of the assessment team have a critical role in the success of assessments. In addition, it was found that the customers have different purposes for assessments and those purposes have an effect on how one should conduct the assessment—or whether to conduct it at all.

[1]  Patty Curthoys,et al.  Developing user interfaces: Ensuring usability through product and process , 1997 .

[2]  Timo Jokela,et al.  Assessment of user-centred design processes as a basis for improvement action , 2001 .

[3]  Jean Vanderdonckt,et al.  CLOSING THE GAPS: Software Engineering and Human-Computer Interaction , 2003 .

[4]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  Usability engineering , 1997, The Computer Science and Engineering Handbook.

[5]  Kent L. Beck,et al.  Embracing Change with Extreme Programming , 1999, Computer.

[6]  Karen Holtzblatt,et al.  Contextual design , 1997, INTR.

[7]  John D. Gould,et al.  The 1984 Olympic Message System: a test of behavioral principles of system design , 1987, CACM.

[8]  Mary Beth Rosson,et al.  Usability Engineering: Scenario-based Development of Human-Computer Interaction , 2001 .

[9]  Leonard J. Bass,et al.  Identifying gaps between HCI, software engineering, and design, and boundary objects to bridge them , 2004, CHI EA '04.

[10]  Richard J. Anderson,et al.  Organizational limits to HCI: conversations with Don Norman and Janice Rohn , 2000, INTR.

[11]  Peter Johnson,et al.  Helping and hindering user involvement — a tale of everyday design , 1997, CHI.

[12]  Michael D. Myers,et al.  When success turns into failure: a package-driven business process re-engineering project in the financial services industry , 1999, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[13]  Mark C. Paulk,et al.  The Capability Maturity Model: Guidelines for Improving the Software Process , 1994 .

[14]  H. Rex Hartson,et al.  Developing user interfaces: ensuring usability through product & process , 1993 .

[15]  Pekka Abrahamsson,et al.  Usability Assessment of an Extreme Programming Project: Close Co-operation with the Customer Does Not Equal to Good Usability , 2004, PROFES.

[16]  John M. Carroll,et al.  Metaphor, computing systems, and active learning , 1999, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[17]  Stephanie Rosenbaum,et al.  A toolkit for strategic usability: results from workshops, panels, and surveys , 2000, CHI.

[18]  James D. Hollan,et al.  Strategic directions in human-computer interaction , 1996, CSUR.

[19]  Timo Jokela.  Making user-centred design common sense: striving for an unambiguous and communicative UCD process model , 2002, NordiCHI '02.

[20]  Alistair Cockburn,et al.  Agile Software Development , 2001 .

[21]  Timo Jokela,et al.  Assessing Human-Centred Design Processes in Product Development by Using the INUSE Maturity Model , 1998 .

[22]  Deborah J. Mayhew,et al.  The usability engineering lifecycle , 1998, CHI Conference Summary.

[23]  Jonathan Earthy,et al.  The improvement of human-centred processes-facing the challenge and reaping the benefit of ISO 13407 , 2001, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[24]  George A. Flanagan.  Usability management maturity, part 1: self assessment—how do you stack up? , 1996, SGCH.

[25]  Donald A. Norman,et al.  User Centered System Design , 1986 .

[26]  Chris W. Clegg,et al.  Problems integrating user participation into software development , 1997, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[27]  Timo Jokela,et al.  Developing A Usability Capability Assessment Approach through Experiments in Industrial Settings , 2001, BCS HCI/IHM.

[28]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  Interpretive case studies in IS research: nature and method , 1995 .

[29]  Janice Redish,et al.  User and task analysis for interface design , 1998 .