Making the Design Process More Usable: Aligning Design with User Performance

摘要

One key drawback when evaluating usability return on investment (ROI) is that the assessment criteria are often subjective, making it difficult for members of a development team to buy in to the need to support usability-derived redesign recommendations. It is thus necessary to convey to the development team the importance of design for usability in a format that is universally understandable. The use of measurable usability requirements to assess usability ROI was found to be an effective approach to align design with operational performance and at the same time justify the need for redesign to the development team. This approach should result in better development team cohesion, as well as superior end product performance, which captures and supports the needs of end users and other stakeholders alike. In the current effort, this alignment process is described, and the utility of the approach is demonstrated by its application in a field case study of the successful design of a software application.