Cooperative -Usability Practices
Detailed studies illustrate the diversity of ways to improve product quality by nurturing usability issues.
Kim Halskov Madsen
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The Diversity of Usability Practices
The U.S. has a long-standing tradition of usability labs, whereas usability labs in Danish industry are a fairly novel phenomenon. On the other hand, the Scandinavian countries, including Denmark, have a strong tradition for informally involving users in the design process rather than having them participate in a formal usability program. In the 1990s we have seen the emergence of a process where Danish industry institutionalizes usability by establishing usability labs, while U.S. industry is increasingly influenced by approaches to user involvement rooted in the Scandinavian countries.
Participatory analysis of flexibility
Analysis as part of requirements gathering, conducted according to conventional systems development approaches like structured analysis and object-oriented analysis, focuses on standard data formats and general data flow. The data dictionaries and data flow diagrams of Yourdon's structured project life-cycle [21] model the general standard data format and flow, respectively. Within the object-oriented paradigm Booch [2] emphasizes, quoting W. Wulf, that:
We (humans) have developed an exceptionally powerful technique for dealing with complexity. We abstract from it. Unable to master the entirely of an object, we choose to ignore its essential details, dealing with the generalized, idealized model of the object. (Our emphasis).
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