[IxDA Discuss] Where does the usability department belong?

[Katie Albers]

I think the answer to this depends largely on what the company is 
trying to do with usability? Do they consider it critical to products 
or a sort of decoration -- the latest buzzword that everyone wants 
them to incorporate even though no one wants it to inconvenience them 
or change the process that's in place.

In the latter case, it really doesn't matter where you put it. You're 
making it subservient to a "real" part of the process.

In the former case, it doesn't go *in* anything else. It is its own 
department that reports at the same level as marketing, IT, customer 
care, etc.

The only exception to that may be if the customer experience 
department is sufficiently independent, you can make usability a 
piece of that.

I realize that sounds very didactic but to me the answer is obvious 
given the fact that the question keeps coming up. If you can't decide 
what place is belongs in, then it doesn't belong in an existing 
place. This issue keeps coming up everywhere, and that's the only 
successful solution I've ever seen.

Good luck.

Katie

At 3:12 PM +0100 11/12/07, <johan.dermaut at belgacom.be> wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>In a big company (more than 15.000 employees) with lots of departments,
>divisions and sections, where do you put the usability team? In the
>marketing department or IT-department or customer care or customer
>experience or R&D or ... ?
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Johan
>
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-- 

----------------
Katie Albers
katie at firstthought.com