Paper Info
Title
Product, process, and profit: the politics of usability in a software venture
Abstract
In research and in practice,usability specialists commonly target thetechnology user-interfaces and help as the main arena for bringing about usability improvements. However, usability improvements depend on more than innovative and user-centered technical designs and implementations. Equally important for creating useful and usable software are the social and political forces that shape the development context. These forces give rise to leadership conflicts, factional disputes, renegade efforts, alliances and betrayals, all of which profoundly influence whether usability improvements will be supported and sustained within and across projects. This essay presents and analyzes a case history of a software start-up company in which usability achieved a Pyrrhic victory, triumphing only in the short run because of social and political forces.
Year
DOI
Venue
2000
10.1145/353927.353928
ACM Journal of Computer Documentation
Keywords
Field
DocType
political force,usability improvement,factional dispute,sociology,software start-up company,case history,goal conflict,pyrrhic victory,usability,software venture,usability specialist,development context,political support,usable software,essay present,production process,user interface,profitability
USable,Web usability,Usability engineering,Sociology,Usability,Knowledge management,Agile usability engineering,Implementation,Politics,Pyrrhic victory
Journal
Volume
Issue
Citations 
24
4
9
PageRank 
References 
Authors
1.00
4
1
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Barbara Mirel115216.94