Cost-Justifying Usability

Randolph G. Bias is an associate professor in the University of Texas at Austin School of Information. With a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from The University of Texas at Austin, Bias spent two decades in industry as a human factors professional, addressing software usability for AT&T Bell Labs, IBM, and then BMC Software where he founded and managed the usability department. Dr. Deborah J. Mayhew is owner and principal of Deborah J. Mayhew & Associates, a consulting firm based in Massachusetts, offering courses and consulting on all aspects of Usability Engineering and user interface design. Clients include American Airlines, AT&T, Ford,Harvard Univeristy, and NASA. Dr. Mayhew received her Ph.D. in Experimental Cognitive Psychology from Tufts University. She is the author of Principles and Guidelines in Software User Interface Design (Prentice Hall), a coeditor of Cost-Justifying Usability (Academic Press), and a contributor to Human Factors and Web Development.

"HCI professionals will repeat quotes with statistics, learn from case studies, and copy chapters for their managers. Thorough & thoughtful, practical & actionable-- readers will be able to put the ideas to work immediately!" —Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland"Cost-Justifying Usability" delivers much more than the promise of its title. Each chapter is worth the price of admission! I found more useful ideas and creative thinking in this book than I've come across in one place in years. Moreover, the collection of articles goes far beyond what the book title might suggest: it not only offers the definitive treatment of determining ROI for usability, but also provides a complete overview of usability considerations for getting you there. From specific calculations to help you with extending the business case, to introducing ethnography into the product development process, Cost Justifying Usability offers a treasure of gems for every user-centered design professional." —Dominick J. Dellino, Director of User Research and Testing, Washington Mutual

• Introduction1. Justifying cost-justifying usability2. Return on investment for usable user-interface design: Examples and statisticsFramework3. A basic framework for cost-justifying usability engineering on Web development projects4. A business case approach to usability5.Marketing usability6. Dot comsOrganizational and Design Context7. Cost-justification of usability engineering: A vendor’s perspective8. Practical ROI issues for UCD teams: Considering the impact of social, internal, and external ROI on team credibility, team longevity, and product success9. Usability science as an independent research service10. ROI in Human Factors for Web Applications11. The business case for international user centered design12. Cost-justification of usability engineering for international Web sites13. The ROI of accessibilityMethods and Approaches 14. Ethnography/Field research at Microsoft15. Out of the box: Approaches to good initial interface designs; 16. Keystroke level modeling as a cost-justification tool 17. The RITE method18. Sample size and user testing – how much is enough?19. Cost-justifying online surveys 20.Cost benefits framework and case studies21. Want respect? Respect the shareholder: Usability at Sprint22. Conclusion, wrap-up, next steps