Management perspectives on usability in a public authority: a case study

• In trying to understand the problem of poor usability in computer-supported work, this article looks at management and their perspective on usability in a public authority. What are their underlying basic values, assumptions and attitudes? Why do managers interpret usability as they do, and what are the consequences for the organization and for usability? The empirical basis is an interpretive case study where 19 semi-structured interviews were conducted. Results indicate that usability is interpreted differently, depending on the formal roles of informants. Furthermore, a majority of the informants express personal, but limited, responsibility for usability. Moreover, we found that basic values are based on an instrumental view of work where efficiency and economy are important constituents. We identified that even though users participate in IT development, they have no formal responsibility or authority. They have become IT workers in that they perform highly technical tasks such as integral testing.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Människa-datorinteraktion (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Human Computer Interaction (hsv//eng)

Keyword

usability

public authority

management

case study

responsibility

basic values

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)