Turning the Usability Fraternity into a Thriving Industry

Abstract

Many business and IT executives today think that usability is an important aspect of software applications that are used in enterprises (Orenstein, 1999). However, the term usability represents different things to different people. And, to most people, usability does not sound like an aspect that could really impact enterprise performance and bottom-line. Literature suggests that the usability fraternity has failed to make an impact so far. For example, Bias and Mayhew (1994) ask “… given that the Human Factors Society (now the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society) is a quarter of a century old, why is it taking so long for usability engineering to achieve its place alongside the other accepted disciplines?” Later, this article looks at some reasons why, and what to do about it.