Use it or lose it
Use it or lose it
Jan 01, 2005: IT gets quite a rough ride these days. In recent years, the failure and difficulties of rolling out major information systems in organisations have all received a great deal of attention in the media. Meanwhile critics, such as Nicholas Carr, have also emerged as the champions of disgruntled end-users who challenge the competitive role of IT in business and argue that it is now just a commodity. But if this is the case, why do we still hear about innovative IT solutions that exceed expectations or achieve widespread adoption? Usability is claimed by some as the missing factor that can make or break a new technology, but the real question is to ask if this is so, how do we know? James Dellow endeavours to find out.
Usability is a component of the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), which can be described simply as the study of interaction between people and IT. This field provides an important and often ignored human-centred perspective on the IT value debate. HCI draws on methods and concepts from many other disciplines such as computer science, psychology, design, sociology, information management, artificial intelligence and others. This cross-discipline approach encourages us to improve technology by understanding how exactly people interact with computer systems.
Consultants such as Toby Biddle, from Melbourne-based usability specialists UsabilityOne, are concerned that many organisations are failing to take usability into account when designing or redeveloping technology. He believes organisations fail to build usability into their projects because they are either ignorant about the issue or in their desire to be seen as 'cutting-edge' consider it unimportant. Unfortunately, a lack of consideration for usability can render even the most straightforward technologies an impractical choice-for example, an IT manager in an aged-care organisation complained to me that even if he wanted to roll out voice-over-IP technology in his facilities, the handset designs he had come across to date were designed for users in corporate offices, not elderly residents with poor eyesight.
In fact, have you noticed-from a technical perspective -how the easiest information technology projects to implement are always the systems that people have to use? But whenever usage is voluntary, that is when end-users have a choice to use something, this creates the risk that it will fail to meet their expectations, and thus end up an expensive white elephant. Methodologies, such as joint-application development (JAD), are designed to ensure systems meet the needs of end-users, but these typically focus on functionality requirements from expert users. In any case, formal development approaches are often skipped in low-budget or fast evolving environments, such as websites and intranets. Ironically, websites in particular are a good example of voluntary systems that must compete to grab the attention of users and quickly meet their expectations for information, services or products.
However, Biddle makes an important point that the issue is not just about good usability, as he has found that 'organisations rarely monitor the impact of changes or upgrades, and it means that there is no opportunity to learn from mistakes, or from successes'. In other words, organisations need to measure the impact of changes as part of the usability process. In hindsight, it is common business sense that we can only manage what can be measured. The Australian Institute for Project Management (AIPM) is an excellent example of applying usability concepts and ongoing measurement together.
Kevin O'Donnell, Information Resource Centre and Website Manager at the AIPM, quickly identified at the beginning of 2004 that their website needed urgent attention. Initially, O'Donnell had no idea what people were looking at, if anything at all, but later was able to access detailed data about how the website was being used. He told me that 'now I can actually see what people are looking for-day by day, week by week-so I can see where problems are and look for trends'.
As a result of this analysis and the changes O'Donnell has made, hits to the site have increased from approximately 270,000 in January 2004 to a peak of 736,000 in November 2004. In terms of actual outcomes, they also know that users are spending less time to find the information they need and the number of online membership applications submitted has increased. O'Donnell continues to use their website statistics to constantly fine-tune the content and navigation on the site. He insists that a feedback loop is important in this process and that 'you can't finish the project and let it sit there. The post-mortem side of project management is most important.'
The AIPM's experience reflects the benefits of monitoring website usage to understand the bottlenecks. It also demonstrates how usability can deliver great value as an ongoing part of the development of a technology. One simple technique that can help you to start focusing on usability in projects that lack a structured development process is the SMART goal setting approach. SMART is a well-known method used in organisations to help staff set and measure achievable performance goals. But SMART can also be applied to information technology. SMART reminds us that our goals should be:
• Specific;
• Measurable;
• Action-oriented;
• Realistic; and
• Time- and resource constrained.
The particular benefit of using the SMART concept is that it focuses on achievable outcomes within the resources available to you, which is exactly how usability should be applied in practice. Again, the AIPM website is a good example of how an appropriate focus on the right aspects of usability have resulted in creating improvements in key areas. Of course, in projects utilising formal software development methodologies you should endeavour to included usability if it does not already exist as a step but also ensure it is measured as a functional deliverable.
So there is no doubt that usability is an important factor in making information technology systems successful. It is of particular importance where users have a choice. But usability in itself is not a silver bullet for IT-after all success is relevant and without measures, goals or an intended outcome in mind then we may still have to ask, does usability matter?
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