Docent Jonas Löwgren, Institutionen för Datavetenskap, Linköpings Universitet, Linköping: Usability-Oriented Systems Development in Practice

The basic assumption of the work in the Usability Matters (UM) group in Linköping is that computer systems should be usable. It is easily observed that (1) systems in use are not always as usable as they "could be", and that (2) systems development companies do not always address usability as a conscious goal of their development efforts. The UM group tries to understand the reasons for this situation and find ways of changing it.

I will start by giving an overview of the concept of "usability" as it has evolved within the human-computer interaction (HCI) research community. The main part of the talk, then, is about how the UM group attempts to change systems development practice in the direction of usability by means of action research projects in collaboration with development companies. I will illustrate with two recent examples: one focusing on collaboration between system developers and technical communicators, and the other on the use of heuristic usability evaluation in iterative systems development. To conclude, I reflect upon what we have learnt in terms of collaboration between academia and industry, and point out promising directions for future work.

Supplementary reading material will be available after the talk.

Välkommna!
Kenneth Nilsson