The usability design process - integrating user-centered systems design in the software development process

This paper reviews current efforts in bridging the gaps between software engineering and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and describes some critical issues that must be resolved in order to reconcile some of the differences between the two fields. We argue that user-centered systems design (UCSD) must be tightly integrated in the software development process and suggest the usability design process as a way of doing this. The usability design process is a UCSD approach for developing usable interactive systems, combining usability engineering with interaction design, and emphasizing extensive active user involvement throughout the iterative process. We outline the usability design process and illustrate the steps in the process with examples from real-life design cases. Finally, we provide an example of how the usability design process can be implemented in a commercial software development process, Rational Unified ProcessTM (RUP).