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I am looking for pairs of organisations which supply and acquire software
which would be interested in trialing the provision of usability reports
to make usability more visible in the procurement process. This would be
part of a European project to demonstrate the value of using "Common
Industry Format" usability reports for enhancing consumer-supplier
relationships.
The Common Industry Format for reporting usability test results is
currently being agreed between major software suppliers and purchasers in
the United States in an initiative co-ordinated by NIST. The scheme is
due to be published and start pilot testing in mid 1999. I have been
contributing to the development of the scheme, and the first official
draft should be available soon. I will post a notice on this mailing list
once the scheme is announced formally, but in the meantime please contact
me if you would be interested in participating in a European trial.
I attach below as background information excerpts from the publicity
document for the scheme.
Nigel Bevan
_______________________________________________________________
| Nigel Bevan | [log in to unmask] |
| Serco Usability Services | Tel: 0181 614 3811 |
| Alderney House, 4 Sandy Lane | +44 181 614 3811 |
| Teddington, Middlesex | Fax: 0181 614 3765 |
| TW11 0DU, UK | Mobile: 0468 021 981 |
| http://www.usability.serco.com |
_______________________________________________________________
The Industry Usability Reporting Project (I-USR)
When companies or organizations make large purchase decisions for software,
they currently have little visibility of the usability of the products they
are buying. However, the business case for software usability has been
clearly established. Moreover, poor usability is an uncontrolled source of
overhead, caused by the need for users to correct errors and continually
re-learn complex user interfaces. Software that is measurably usable
reduces errors, reduces training costs, reduces maintenance costs, while
increasing user productivity and satisfaction.
>From the software supplier's perspective, the pressure to bring software to
market rapidly has adversely affected qualities such as usability. As
dependence on shrink-wrapped software and Web-based applications increases
so will the need for consumers to have visibility of software product
usability before making large purchase decisions.
In October, 1997, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) initiated an effort to increase the visibility of software usability.
Cooperating in this effort are prominent suppliers of software and
representatives from large consumer organizations. The goals of the
initiative are:
* Encourage software suppliers and consumer organizations to work
together to understand user needs and tasks.
* Develop a common usability reporting format for sharing usability
data with consumer organizations.
* Conduct a pilot trial to determine how well the usability reporting
format works and to determine the value of using this format in software
procurement.
To date, two workshops and numerous e-mail discussions have resulted in
the following draft documents:
* The I-USR white paper containing a detailed explanation of the
project, including requirements for participating in the pilot trial.
* The Common Industry Format (CIF) for reporting usability results
* The metrics that will be collected during the pilot study
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