“To truly become a user-centered organization, companies almost always progress through the same sequence of steps, gradually increasing their levels of commitment to usability.”

Jakob Nielsen, UseIt

In short, these are the 8 stages of Corporate Usability Maturity*: (more…)

In a news release, Chris Mairs of BCS warns that “continuing failure to adapt both current and future IT systems to a group representing over 15 per cent of the population (UK statistic), will critically impact on all of us.”

Mairs points out that “the aging population means a significant proportion of us will eventually be classified as disabled, particularly with some degree of visual impairment. Added to which, this sector of society also represents an annual spend of £50 billion (UK statistic), a figure likely to grow annually by over ten per cent.” (more…)

“Even though business decision-makers of all stripes acknowledge the merits of design, it’s the designers and usability professionals who are the first to get jettisoned from a project plan when the going gets rough.”

Steve Calde, Cooper

As a user experience designer I see this scenario happen all to often. In practice, designers and usability professionals are required to constantly justify their role in projects, especially - as Steve Calde also mentions - when budgets and/or deadlines are challenging.

There are plenty facts and figures regarding the ROI of usability, but in my experience finding them is not that easy. (more…)

Yesterday, the 2005 conference of SIGCHI.nl was held in Den Haag. I have not been a frequent visitor of SIGCHI events, but I must say yesterday was worthwile. Here are the highlights. (more…)