Human Factors and the Systems Development Process

Abstract

Internet systems have the potential to reach a huge and unknown audience. How easy a system is to use will usually determine its success or failure and consequently the business and yet the human factors elements of systems are rarely considered. Usability describes the ease with which people can use a system to complete a task. It is often the case however that development teams focus more on the technology and less on the users when designing systems resulting in software that is not useable and therefore does not satisfy users’ need. This chapter presents recent research, which examines one approach to developing a web-based information system and demonstrates how the composition of the development team through the inclusion of people with an understanding of user needs is important to the quality of the final product and ultimately the success of the system.