Selling usability to organisations: strategies for convincing people of the value of usability

Abstract

Usability may now be practised by a large number of software developers, but has yet to gain wide acceptance. The value of usability must be communicated across multiple levels of an organisation, which requires speaking several “languages”. This practical, hands-on tutorial will cover techniques for convincing management or potential clients of the value of usability and usability testing, in terms each group understands. It will address issues from how to develop a usability strategy for a whole organisation to how to find data to convince stakeholders of a single usability activity. needs, business objectives and culture. This information reveals barriers and opportunities which can hinder or facilitate usability acceptance. From this knowledge, an appropriate usability strategy can be determined.