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- Boivie, Inger, 1959-
(author)
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A Fine Balance : Addressing Usability and Users’ Needs in the Development of IT Systems for the Workplace
- 2005
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- IT systems with poor usability are a serious problem in many workplaces. Many workers, particularly office workers, spend a large part of their workday at the computer, and usability problems can cause frustration and impact negatively on productivity. This thesis discusses some of the problems associated with addressing usability and users’ needs in IT systems development.Usability issues and users’ needs are often marginalised or even abandoned in systems development. Technical issues and deadlines are given precedence, while usability activities and user activities are cut back or cancelled. Research shows that there are various obstacles to usability and user involvement, including difficulties with understanding the usability concept, insufficient usability expertise and a lack of time and resources.This thesis presents a number of studies that look at the problem from different angles. The main question is why usability and users’ needs are marginalised in bespoke systems development, where IT systems are built for a specific work context. The research presented in this thesis also addresses user-centred systems design as a way of integrating usability issues and users’ needs into systems development. The thesis concludes with a discussion about different ways of viewing and representing the users’ work: the systems theoretical view and the view of work as a social process. The former emphasises the formal aspects of work and views users as components in an overall system, whereas the latter focuses on work as a social process and people as active agents. The discussion concludes with the argument that the conflict between these two views is played out in the systems development process, which may help explain some of the difficulties that arise when working with usability and users’ needs.
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- Boivie, Inger, et al.
(author)
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The Lonesome Cowboy - A Study of the Usability Designer Role in Systems Development. Interacting with Computers
- 2006
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In: Interacting with computers. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0953-5438 .- 1873-7951. ; 18:4, s. 601-634
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper reports on an evaluation of the usability designer role as applied in two Swedish systems development organisations. The role was initially defined by us, but evolved in these two organisations. We conducted interviews with usability designers, project managers and a user representative. Our main research question was whether or not the introduction of a usability designer has been successful in terms of changes in the systems development process and the impact the role has had on products, projects and organisations. To some extent, the role has met our expectations and intentions for instance, in helping the usability designers shift their focus towards design, and assume some kind of "users' advocate" role. But in other ways, the role "failed". The usability designers in our study are still facing the kind of problems and obstacles that usability professionals have always had to deal with.
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- Boivie, Inger
(author)
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Usability and Design Decisions in Software Development
- 2001
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Despite the attention that has been paid to usability in the last few years, the world is still full of inadequate software and frustrated users. The aim of this study was to deepen the understanding of how usability matters are handled in software development projects, particularly at the Swedish National Tax Board (Riksskatteverket - RSV) and the Swedish National Board for Social Securities (Riksförsäkringsverket - RFV). The main focus of the study was usability and interaction design decisions in software development projects, that is, considerations in the software development process that have implications on the usability of the resulting system. Who makes the decisions about the interaction design? When are they made? What are the sources of input and the main constraints? What support regarding usability matters does the decision maker have access to? The study was conducted by means of a series of semi-structured interviews with eight developers and usability people in the two organisations. The study shows that there is no simple answer to who makes the interaction design decisions and when they are made. Rather, it is a case of everybody (developers and user representatives) making this kind of decisions, all the time. Many decisions are never made, they just happen as a result of somebody coding a bit, or modelling a bit. The matter of responsibility for the interaction design was unclear, causing frustration. Use cases are the basis of all design, and thus crucial to the usability of the resulting system. But, use cases were reported to be difficult write. They easily turn into “system operations” providing little or no support for interaction design. One conclusion is that usability requires hands-on activities throughout the project, or it “gets lost”, this is particularly important during construction. One way of achieving continuous attention could be to incorporate a usability role in the system development process and give it sufficient status.
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- Boivie, Inger
(author)
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Usability and users’ health issues in systems development
- 2003
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The figures of reported health problems in computer-supported, administrative, work are alarmingly high and increasing. The main health problems are visual discomfort, repetitive strain injuries (RSI) and stress-related disorders. Some important risk factors are poor workstation design, constrained work postures, repetitive work and long hours of computer use every day. Others are high demands, poor control over workload and work pace and poor relations to management and colleagues. There is also evidence that poor design and usability of the computer systems as well as technical problems with the computer add to the pressure perceived by the user, which may in its turn cause stress-related disorders.Systems (software) development is often technology-driven and the design and contents of the resulting system shapes the work situation, including factors affecting the users' health and well-being. There are numerous examples in the literature describing how poorly designed systems fail to support the real work practices, introducing new ones that are inadequate and more time-consuming. Thus these, supposedly supporting, computer systems get in the way of efficient and effective work, adding a burden on the workers rather than helping them out.This thesis tries to describe some of the relations between the systems development process and users' health complaints, in a work context. I also discuss whether or not the concepts of usability and user experience can be used to address users' health issues in the systems development process. The main results indicate that although usability must be addressed, it is not sufficient. Occupational health issues must be explicitly integrated in systems development, and be given priority. This thesis also describes some potential methods and techniques for doing that.
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