Thirteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

We, as consultants, have been working on a Usability Process Assessment that’s related to the rigorous and formal ISO 18152, but far more compact & simplified (one-page assessment; often to get projects from doing nothing to doing something). Our goals in designing our assessment were to: make it as simple as possible, perhaps as simple as 10 questions. Perhaps simple enough that a Project Manager who isn’t aware of human-centered design processes could perform a self- assessment). Focus on the specific problems that our clients are most likely to have (to get them from having NO human-centered design process to a minimum baseline.) One client, in particular, keeps making the same mistakes over and over again. Base the assessment on well-vetted principles of human-centered design, like those in ISO 18152, ISO 13407, ISO 18529, UPA’s usability body of knowledge, and so on. This talk will explain how we developed our assessment, which we ultimately called an “HCD Checkup.” We’ll explain what worked, what missteps we made, and what we did to ensure it’s a valid test. We’ll walk through the checkup itself and show the worksheet we’ve developed, the questions we ask, the scoring mechanism, and so on. Finally, we’ll review the dozens of checkups we’ve performed and talk about what common pitfalls project teams encounter regarding human-centered design.