Using organizational learning techniques to develop context-specific usability guidelines

Abstract

Usability guidelines are becoming increasingly popular with organizations that develop software with significant user interface components. But most guidelines fall short of the goal to put the accumulated knowledge of user-centered design at the fingertips of everyday developers, often becoming a static document read only by human factors specialists. This paper describes a process and technology designed to turn usability guidelines into a proactive development resource that can be applied throughout the development process. The process ensures conformance with established guidelines, but has the flexibility to meet the diverse needs of user interface design requirements, and use project experiences to evolve the guidelines to meet the dynamic needs of organizations. Case-based and organizational learning technology is used to support this process and integrates emerging interface design experiences with established guidelines to create a context-specific body of knowledge about usability practices.