The term usability is used in two different ways:

International Standards Association definition: The effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which a specified set of users can achieve a specified set of tasks in a particular environment

In other words, the user can get their work done quickly and without problems. Another name for usability is ease-of-use.

• Invariably, end-users prefer to use software that is “high in usability”, “usable”, "user friendly", or “easy to use”.
  
  
• Companies benefit from usable products because employees need less training, are more productive, make fewer errors, and are more satisfied with the systems they use to do their job.

2. Usability as a process

In the IT industry, usability is used to mean:

to perform a certain activity within a usability engineering or User-Centered Design (UCD) process.

The goal of these activities is to produce a useable and effective product. For example, “We need to do some usability work on our product”.

The activities involve gathering and prioritizing requirements directly from end-users, and properly evaluating designs through design reviews, usability laboratory testing, and end-user surveys.

Today, usability is often discussed alongside the terms User-Centered Design and user-experience.

What is User-Centered Design (UCD)?

UCD is a scientifically-based product development methodology that integrates various usability activities into the development lifecycle. UCD methods use members of the product's target audience to gather inputs to the product's design, and provide feedback on design specs and prototypes during their development. A full and effectively executed UCD process ensures that the product will meet the needs, wishes, and capabilities of the target market – and that it will be useable.

The services I can integrate in your own project are all proven usability/UCD methods.

What is user-experience?

Usability is a component of user experience, a term invariably used when discussing the effectiveness of public Internet sites. Unlike traditional software, Internet sites are a battleground where the visitor has complete freedom to “stick with” or abandon your site. User experience is important in capturing and then maintaining the visitors' interest so they receive value from your site and become loyal visitors and loyal customers.

Usability is an important part of user experience, but user experience involves much more. It encompasses issues such as delivering exceptional value to the individual visitor, earning trust, delivering an effective interactive, online experience of your company’s brand, and ultimately, compelling visitors to act according to your business goals. To complicate matters, not all visitors have the same expectations, abilities, or preferences. The methods used to develop an effective user-experience must be particularly sensitive to these issues.

Links

There are hundreds of web sites that feature usability. Here are links to a few of the most comprehensive ( Each link opens a new browser window):

• Usable Web - Listing of usability and UCD resources
  
• Human-Computer Interaction bibliography - Academic abstracts
  
• Business 2.0 Web Guide: Web usability
  
• Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox

Incorporating usability/UCD methods in your product's development results in more usable products and a more effective user-experience. There are significant business benefits to corporate customers that use your software. There are also benefits to your development project by way of mitigated project risk and even reduced cost.

Links

(each link will open a new browser window)

	ROI for usability [abstract]	-	useit.com - Jakob Nielsen's summary of a 110 page report available for purchase through his site. January 2003.
	Usability and the bottom line [Acrobat PDF format]	-	computer.org - Cost-benefit analysis of usability for typical business scenarios. Jaunary 2001.
	Cost-justifying usability [description & reviews]	-	amazon.com - Seminal book on the topic, 1994.
	Get ROI from design [abstract]	-	forrester.com - Forrester Research report available to subscribed clients, June 2001.

Here are some of the benefits of a usable product:

Your product is easy to learn

Your customers spend less time learning your product, disrupting co-workers for help, calling the help-desk or call-center, or spending time and money in training. It’s users can become productive more quickly. Your documentation costs are reduced because comprehensive product manuals are not necessary.

Your product supports user’s tasks effectively 

The user can accomplish their tasks more quickly, often with fewer or easier steps, leaving fewer opportunity for costly errors. Fewer staff are required to accomplish the same amount of work.

A usable product empowers its users to accomplish their work. Workers are less frustrated and stressed and more content and productive. Product liability for system-induced errors can be avoided.

Your site is compelling

Visitors to your site can find what they want before they give up, and they are intrigued by the additional value available to them. They have no reason to go elsewhere to do what they want to do.  They are ready to accept business propositions you make because they trust you and know you will deliver. E-commerce buzzwords like conversion rate, click-through, and stickiness (and even revenue!) are all increased. Your business has acquired a loyal customer who can deliver revenue back to you over a lifetime.

Ease-of-use is now a major part of product reviews in the trade press. A reputation for being easy-to-use is gold in the marketplace. Just ask companies like AOL with their slogan “So easy to use, no wonder it’s Number One.”

By employing usability methods in your project, information that is critical to producing a usable design is available to the design team when they need it. Time is not wasted arguing over poorly informed opinions that can compromise product design and be costly and time consuming to fix later on.

The Usability Consultant (or Usability Analyst) is a trained professional specializes in applying usability- and UCD-methods to ensure the ease-of-use and positive user-experience of products.

In a development project, the role of a usability professional is usually not to create all the details of the user-interface design itself. Instead, it is to optimize the ongoing design throughout the process using inputs and feedback from end users in the product's target market. In early design and for existing products, the usability professional has training and experience in uncovering real design-issues that would otherwise remain unreported.

There is no formal accreditation required (or even available) for using the Usability title. Membership in the Usability Professionals' Association and other usability organizations is open to anyone with an interest in the topic.  

In order to ensure the highest level of competence, the professional should have education and training in one of the academic disciplines that form the core of usability methods: Experimental-, Cognitive-, or Human Factors Psychology, Industrial Engineering, or Human-Computer Interaction.

But education is not sufficient. The ability to determine the best  method(s) for a particular project and budget, to integrate those methods within a development plan, and to conduct those methods effectively and efficiently, are things that only experience can hone.

My own background is in Experimental and Human Factors Psychology. This discipline predates Human Computer Interaction, the latter being a hybrid of psychology and computer-science which emerged with the popularity -- and problems -- of interactive computer systems. As a psychologist, my specialized usability expertise is in evaluating design from the perspective of the end-users who will be using the product.

Because it takes an experienced usability professional to "do usability" well.

Either your project will use a professional Usability Analyst, or this role will be adopted by one of your designers, Quality Assurance staff, or even Marketing staff, if at all. Here are some reasons why a qualified Usability Analyst is the best bet for quality results:

Although usability methods sometimes look easy to the outsider, they are actually difficult to plan and conduct effectively, and integrate into your development plan. It is very easy to gather misleading data using inappropriate methods, or by executing those methods poorly. But it's not easy for the untrained to tell when usability data is misleading or insufficient. You will eventually find out -- when it's too late.

The Usability Analyst is a specialist who is educated, trained, and experienced in providing accurate and relevant information that will have a positive impact on the design of your interactive product. This is not a part-time job.

Invariably, professionals who design user interfaces understand that ease-of-use is important.

Unfortunately, this appreciation is very difficult to put into practice, and it never happens with the first design. Even if the designer is exceedingly competent, he or she is constantly confronted with changing or uncertain product requirements, technical constraints, deadlines, and sometimes even the client's whims.

For each design decision, there is no time available to ponder its ultimate impact on all the various end-users as they work with the completed product. The designer(s) must take charge to deliver an acceptable design on time, despite the significant constraints of a development project.

Yet, the only perspective that really matters to a product’s end users is their own perspective. They don’t care about all the challenges of your project, they just want to do what they want to do, easily.

The Usability Analyst can anticipate complex usability issues, early

Design becomes more completely specified as it evolves from an initial set of requirements and then meets tight project deadlines for high-level interactive-architecture, detailed interactive design, functional build, and for Internet solutions, graphic design and content integration as well.

As it becomes more specified, the product has more individuals defining its user-interface, filling in details that were not designed or anticipated in the high-level specs. Many usability problems creep into the product as the individual components come together during the detailed design and build to produce the interactive product. A user-interface control may no longer “make sense” when considered along with the written content that proceeds it. Not everyone can make the best design decisions.

It is impossible for designers to anticipate all of the ways in which end-users could be confused when all the various elements of design and implementation are finally delivered as a complete interactive product.

The skilled Usability Analyst can identify potential usability issues in a collection of early static design elements before they become propagated throughout the product or integrated into a complete interactive solution.

The Usability Analyst considers the end-user first, not the technology

Design professionals and developers are extremely sophisticated users. They can sometimes have difficulty appreciating how easily real people can become confused. They are often tempted by technology to consider what is possible rather than what is necessary. Often, additional capability adds unnecessary complexity to the product.

The Usability Analyst brings to the project the perspective of the target end-users looking into technology, rather than the designer’s view of technology looking out to the end-user.

The Usability Analyst provides unbiased third-party input to design

Obviously, it is very easy for the designer to understand the organization and structure of the design they created, and they can very easily determine how to accomplish key tasks. It's never as easy for real users, who bring with them their own capabilities, ideas, expectations, and goals when seeing the product's opening menus for the first time. Real users always show unanticipated interpretations of a seemingly sensible design. A designer simply cannot conduct effective evaluations of their own design and overcome their knowledge and biases. 

The Usability Analyst can operate third-party/arm’s length to ongoing design discussions, and contribute a politically and technically unbiased perspective to the design process -- that of your product’s intended users.

The Usability Analyst empowers designers to design

When it matters, doing usability work is a full time job. So is designing.

My usability services enable designers to focus on delivering design. Your designers are key stakeholders of usability processes, and they participate in the planning and execution (when appropriate) to ensure that the usability work will make a difference. I deliver the information that your designers need, when they need it, which empowers them to work with greater knowledge, confidence, and efficiency.

Not if it's done well.

In fact, studies have shown just the opposite: incorporating solid usability/UCD methods in your project should actually reduce time and cost.

Effective User-Centered Design and usability methods empower the team to make informed product requirements and design decisions on the basis of relevant, high-quality data from individuals in your target market(s). The project can proceed with focus and confidence rather than becoming deadlocked by multiple opinions of well-intentioned but inadequately informed stakeholders and team members. Less time is spent on work that is based on poor decisions.

Experienced Usability Analysts can effectively integrate their usability processes into the project plan in parallel with other activities, so that critical information is available at the moment it is required.

Through my training and experience I can do an excellent job in determining, and then applying, the most effective usability/user-centered design methods to reduce the risk of your delivering a product that is difficult and frustrating to use. 

In development projects, I can gather and prioritize user-centered requirements from actual end-users to start your project off right.

During design, I can conduct various sorts of evaluations of design ideas and early design artifacts, including use cases, storyboards, wire-frames, low-and mid-fidelity static and interactive prototypes, creative mockups, and style guides.

The goal is to detect usability issues and opportunities for enhancement early in the project when they can be much more easily addressed. There will be fewer usability issues remaining at the end of the design cycle, and the types of problems that do remain should be easy to resolve.

All the information I provide information empowers your project’s decision-makers, designers and project managers to take appropriate actions early and with confidence so that they can deliver the most usable products possible.

I am a full-time software Usability Analyst

...and that's all I do. Many "usability practitioners" are really programmers who develop user-interfaces. For them, usability analysis is a part-time job. By attending a conference and a reading book or two, they are deemed to be "the usability person” for their company. Many are excellent programmers and designers, but, as in any field, a true specialist is a better bet for producing results.

I have been a professional Usability Analyst for many years

Since 1981, I have spent my entire academic and professional careers working on issues that compromise the ability of people to work effectively with technology. Since 1991, I have worked exclusively in developing and applying usability methods in software development projects at IBM and for Fortune 500 clients at Immersant, an Internet professional services company, where I led the corporate Usability discipline. Since 1995, I've been a Special Editorial Board member of the journal Interacting with Computers.

Details are in my Resume.

Like many others who call themselves a Usability Analyst, I have experience working on numerous Internet projects, which involve a highly unconstrained design-medium, rapid development, quick decisions, small nimble interdisciplinary project teams, and near continuous deployment and evolution of the product.

But I also have a vast amount of experience working on large complex teams on large complex mainframe- and midrange-system software projects. I even have several years of professional experience evaluating human factors issues in air traffic control systems and aircraft instrumentation.

Through the years, I have gained experience in relating usability concerns to the diverse perspectives of decision makers, stakeholders, and development team members. My time and effort estimates have become more and more accurate. I have learned how to proceed and complete projects succesfully in spite of hurdles and obstacles.

I have experience in integrating usability methods into corporate processes (ISO 9001, IBM Software Development Process, and Rational Unified Process) and development project plans:

• I know how to integrate usability processes to work packages and within different development methodologies.
• I know how and why DCR and change control processes exist and how they work.
• I know what all sorts of design artifacts look like, or should look like, when they are produced in the design cycle. I know what they can and cannot represent for evaluation purposes.
• I understand project inputs and outputs that are needed to have a real effect on product usability.
• I understand the textbook approach to User-Centered Design and usability engineering, but I also know how to make it work in real development projects.
• I know that plans are plans, and how to work contingencies.
• I know what a project's QA function does, and how usability integrates to their processes.
• I understand that people skills are as important as good processes to getting the job done.

I understand that ease-of-use is only a part of the picture for any successful software project. Usually, release dates and marketing plans take priority over pure ease-of-use concerns. In many projects, my role is to find opportunities to maximize usability given business and project parameters that cannot be compromised.

I am effective with executive stakeholders

Executive support is often essential for a successful project. I have been effective in many marketing, sales, and project engagements with Director- and VP-level decision makers. I know that their concerns are not the same as the project manager, and I know how to communicate and interact at their level.

My qualifications and unbiased scientific third-party perspective provide the credibility that is often needed for executives to take usability issues seriously, and make a commitment to your project to do it right.

I am a psychologist and a scientist

This contributes to your project on two levels:

1. I use my training to listen to and relate to individual's perspectives, whether they are end-users involved in evaluation techniques, or members of your project team.
   
   
2. I have extensive formal education in scientific techniques of observing and analyzing human perception, cognition, and behavior – the fundamental psychological processes involved when people use software. The quality of this information is only as good as the individual who gathers and analyzes the data, draws the conclusions, and makes the recommendations. That requires education and experience.

I provide several services that will serve the needs your own project.

The services can be contracted individually, or I can develop a comprehensive User-Centered Design approach for your development or product-evolution projects.

As a highly trained and experienced professional in Human Factors psychology, usability, and psychological research design, I can be effective in any project that involves humans using technology. In terms of today’s technology, this includes:

• Internal business applications
• Back office systems
• CRM systems
• Specialized technology
• Internet sites
• Company Intranet
• B2B Extranet
• Shrink-wrapped applications of any sort
• ATMs & Kiosks
• Voice response systems
• Wireless devices
• Personal digital assistants
• Control systems
  

If I don’t have extensive experience with a particular type of specialized software, I conduct usability evaluation sessions using people who do have that experience. Experts in an application domain are a valuable resource for usability evaluations of complex products: They can help identify key usage scenarios, and then walk-through these scenarios while the usability analyst watches out for all the places along the way where non-experts will likely flounder. In fact, less familiarity with a particular application domain can make it easier for an experienced Usability Analyst to identify and diagnose issues that plague non-expert end-users.

First, I need to understand your project before I can quote a price. I can quote a fixed-price for most engagements. Below is a typical range of fees for my most frequently engaged usability services. You can see more details about costs by taking the links in the table:

Type of service	Typical range
User-centered requirements	Depends on scope	More details
Lab testing:Existing product (or build/QA level)	CAD $12,000-$35,000	More details
Lab testing: Development project prototypes	CAD $7,500 (Time & Materials)
UCD design reviews	CAD $500 - $20,000	More details
Design consulting	Time & Materials or monthly retainer

When I the corporate lead of the Usability Discipline at an international Internet company, my professional services were billed to clients at big corporate rates.  As an independent consultant, I deliver these very same services directly to you for your own project at significantly less cost.

In addition, because my home-base is in Canada, I calculate my project quotes on a Canadian dollar cost-basis.

Any where it needs to be.

A permanent “Usability Lab” is not the key or essential element to producing quality results. A permanent lab is sometimes more of a marketing tool than a requirement.

In fact, I do indeed have all the hardware and software that comprises a high-end usability lab. Moreover, it is not married to a single location – it can be setup in any location required.

Usually, the “lab” for your project will be a professional focus group facility at the location that is most convenient both for your team and for the test-participants from your target market. I augment the facility's audiovisual equipment with my own to provide the required test suite. At these facilities, your stakeholders and development team members can watch the sessions live through the one-way glass.

Often, lab tests are most effective when done in the field: at your client’s site or at your own business location. I use wireless technology to send video signals of the user’s workstation, facial expressions, and associated audio to an observation area. Wireless audio lets your stakeholder and development team participate in the session, as appropriate, by communicating with me in the test room through an earphone receiver.

If appropriate, I can also employ Internet-enabled technologies to conduct laboratory-like sessions in distributed locations and times. These methods essentially attempt to replace the one-way glass of the traditional laboratory with the fibre-optics of the Internet.

If you already know you want a review or lab assessment, then I’m certainly ready to deliver.

However, as a consultant, I can act to advise you of the most effective usability service, or set of services, to serve your project. To do so, I need to understand certain business and project parameters .

The primary determinant of which usability method will be most effective at any particular phase of your development project is the fidelity of the available design artifacts to the final interactive product.

Below are some sample high-level project requirements and associated services:

"What would my target market really use?"

These are not business requirements, but end-user requirements. Users are notorious for saying positive things about a "good concept" they hear in a focus group, yet behaving differently when that same concept is actually delivered as a real interactive product. Don’t waste money and time developing features that no one will actually use, or will make your product more complex to use.
Method: User-Centered requirements 

"What needs fixing in our next release?"

Some projects require a high-level analysis of where the product or site most needs improvement, and how it needs to be improved. This type of work requires knowledge of business goals, end-user task sets, planned product enhancements, and, if appropriate, targeted competitive offerings.  The information is used in planning the most critical topics to address in upcoming releases.
Methods: User-Centered Design reviews, Surveys

"Why is this process a problem for users?"

Many maintenance or usability release projects already have a focus on a specific known issue, such as “Too many people are abandoning the shopping cart. We need to know why.” Guessing at the reasons and redesigning on that basis can only make things worse.
Methods: Usability lab testing, Strategic site-log analysis 

"Is this design that we are going to release OK?"

“Are there any design issues where users will become annoyed, frustrated, confused, or disappointed? If so, what are they? Which ones do we really need to fix? How could we fix them without completely throwing out our design?”. All projects should conduct usability reviews and/or user-testing of early prototypes.
Methods: Usability lab testing, User-Centered design reviews

"On which interactive model should we base our product?"

Some projects need to make a decision between different styles of interacting with the system. The development team needs to know which one works best, and how to further optimize its interactive operation. Sometimes, the interactive brand is the topic of concern. I can apply science to the problem to help you make the best decision.
Methods: High-level walkthrough, Usability lab testing

Inserting a “usability” line item in your project plan is no guarantee of success. You need an experienced professional to tightly integrate the most effective usability activities into your project plan, processes, and even your team culture.

Below are some details of how I make this happen in a typical product-development project.

1. Prior to contracting my services

I work with project sponsors to understand relevant business and project parameters: budget, project goals, competitive positioning of the project, competitive intelligence, target market characteristics, business objectives, existing research, project schedule, and concerns going forward.

2. At project kickoff

I establish my primary points of contact with your stakeholders and development team.

I work with the project manager and project team leads to work usability processes and user-centered design concerns into the project charter (or equivalent). The charter will cover roles and responsibilities for myself and the project team, determine which meetings I must attend, which discussions I should remain at arm’s-length to the development process to remain objective, and will set expectations regarding inputs and outputs and how they are incorporated into overall project operations.

The degree to which I act in a third-party/arm’s length relationship to your project team during evaluations depends on whether I am contracted for design prototyping or design consulting services, and on how my other services are integrated according to your project charter.

We also work together to develop the project plan and milestone dates, types of project design artifacts required to enable the planned usability activities, and determine how these will be accommodated to track to plan.

Decisions to address usability remain a part of your development project’s change-control process. In this process, I act as an advocate to ensure that high-severity usability issues are adequately represented and understood. I provide good quality data and analyses to allow decision makers to make the best decision regarding the full set of project goals and constraints.

I also attempt to assess the level of “usability ability” and the degree to which usability processes are accepted or resisted among the key team members.

3. During the project

The degree of integration of usability service with your daily project operations depends on the type of project.

• In product strategy and evolution projects (requirements exercises and evaluations of build-level prototypes and existing products) I work with my primary contact and delegates to develop interim deliverables for approval regarding key scenarios, target-market profiles, and, if applicable, recruiting scripts. We also work together to determine the most desirable lab testing time and location, to secure a list for recruiting (often a pre-qualified list from a customer database), and to coordinate involvement of key project members in laboratory assessments.

I do all the rest.

• In development projects I work closely with your project manager and project leads to coordinate timing, quality, and integration of our respective inputs and outputs. Often, I require input from project leads regarding key usage scenarios to be evaluated.

I always adapt the format and timing of deliverables to best address your specific project requirements. These are determined in consultation with the project manager and design & development team.

For a usability evaluation, a typical set of deliverables is:

Final report

• Overall assessment of usability and other relevant user issues
• Prioritized list of high-level design-issues (typically 10 to 15 for a large Internet site)
• List of detailed user-issues (typically n=50 to 200 for a large Internet site
• User-impact rating (“High”, “medium”, “low”) for each issue (typically 25% “high - impact” for a large site)
• Design recommendations for each high-level and detailed issue
• End user’s product-attribute satisfaction ratings (if applicable)
• NOTE: Daily Flash-reports are delivered for in-design projects

Tape or CD video

• Screen-clips of end-user problems integrated to Flash report or final report
• Analyst overview of findings: product walkthrough and end-user screen clips

Live presentation

• Results highlights to stakeholder/project team
• Issue prioritization working session