workshop 8 Barriers and enablers for usability in practice
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workshop 8 Barriers and enablers for usability in practice Sharing results and getting feedback on a case study
Faciliated by Jasper van Kuijk, PhD student (Delft University of Technology)
The purpose of this workshop was to share the results of a case study and get feedback. The study concerned the practice of usability techniques during product development at five different companies. The businesses involved are all active in developing electronic consumer products, for example personal media players, washing machines, home controls (thermostats) and personal navigation devices.
1,700 factors During the case study, we interviewed product developers in different roles in each of the companies. These roles included product managers, interaction designers and development engineers, as well as usability specialists. This allowed us to capture a perspective broader than that of just the usability specialist alone. We wanted to know how a product might be made more usable throughout the design and implementation process, not merely how its usability can be evaluated. The interviews resulted in over 1,700 non-unique ‘barriers and enablers’. These are organisational properties (belonging to the process, team, or context) that either obstruct the usability of products, or stimulate it. These barriers and enablers were captured in an interactive software application called Trace. This enables them to be mapped in various categories. In addition, Trace allows for interactive browsing of these barriers and enablers and investigating the original interview quotes on which the barriers and enablers were based. This allows other researchers, as well as the participating companies, to