[IxDA Discuss] Usability is more than...

[Whitney Quesenbery]

On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 12:53 AM, Janne Kaasalainen
<janne.p.kaasalainen at nokia.com> wrote:
>  Projects I've dealt with can be divided roughly
>  into these steps*:
>
>  1) Focus
>  2) User research
>  3) Design
>  4) Implementation
>  5) Evaluation
>  6) Go to 1

This basic sequence is very similar to the process described in "ISO
13407:  Human centred design processes for interactive systems"

In some ways, the very strength of 13407 is that it is not overly
prescriptive, allowing each company or team to adjust the details to
specific local contexts. They key is not the exact terminology, or
even the exact breakdown of the steps, but in the concept of user
research informing design and evaluating the emerging product against
requirements that include user experience (not just functionality).
And, in the insistence that the cycle repeat as necessary.

It seems obvious, but good work in the early stages (and more skill by
all contributors) can reduce the number of iterations needed.



-- 
Whitney Quesenbery
www.wqusability.com