Abstract. The concept of user-centred systems design (UCSD) has no agreed upon definition. Consequently, there is a great variety in the ways it is applied, which may lead to poor quality and poor usability in the resulting systems, as well as misconceptions about the effectiveness of UCSD. The purpose of this paper is to propose a definition of UCSD. We have identified 12 key principles for the adoption of a user-centred development process, principles that are based on existing theory, as well as research in and experiences from a large number of software development projects. The initial set of principles were applied and evaluated in a case study and modified accordingly. These principles can be used to communicate the nature of UCSD, evaluate a development process or develop systems development processes that support a usercentred approach. We also suggest activity lists and some tools for applying UCSD. Purpose and justificationThis paper describes the results of our current research on UCSD and our experiences of applying UCSD in software development projects. Our purpose has been to compile knowledge and experiences of UCSD, in order to give the concept a more precise meaning and to increase its power. The main point in our paper is that applying UCSD requires a profound shift of attitudes in systems development, and our main goal is to promote that attitude shift.

The usability concept has now received such a wide recognition in information technology (IT) development that working with usability can be regarded as a profession in its own right. In recent research projects, we have surveyed and studied usability work on an individual level in a number of Swedish development organisations, including success factors and obstacles. What we have seen relates to the individual usability professional and her background and experiences, the organisation in which she operates, the development process, communication and communication means, and finally the attitudes and basic values held by the people involved.In this paper, we compile and reflect on selected findings from different studies on usability work in practical systems 1 development in a number of Swedish organisations. We discuss our findings from a practical point of view and relate them to the research of others within the international HCI community. Finally, we discuss some issues we consider important for the future development of the practice of usability that we believe is of interest to the international community of usability professionals. q (J. Gulliksen).1 In this paper, we use the term 'system' or 'IT system' to denote the kind of products and/or applications developed in the organisations that we have studied. We consider 'software' too limited a concept, being only a part of the IT system. Our use of 'system' does not include humans or other technology, although they may seen as part of an overall system.

Abstract. The concept of user-centred systems design (UCSD) has no agreed upon definition. Consequently, there is a great variety in the ways it is applied, which may lead to poor quality and poor usability in the resulting systems, as well as misconceptions about the effectiveness of UCSD. The purpose of this paper is to propose a definition of UCSD. We have identified 12 key principles for the adoption of a user-centred development process, principles that are based on existing theory, as well as research in and experiences from a large number of software development projects. The initial set of principles were applied and evaluated in a case study and modified accordingly. These principles can be used to communicate the nature of UCSD, evaluate a development process or develop systems development processes that support a usercentred approach. We also suggest activity lists and some tools for applying UCSD. Purpose and justificationThis paper describes the results of our current research on UCSD and our experiences of applying UCSD in software development projects. Our purpose has been to compile knowledge and experiences of UCSD, in order to give the concept a more precise meaning and to increase its power. The main point in our paper is that applying UCSD requires a profound shift of attitudes in systems development, and our main goal is to promote that attitude shift.

This paper reports on an evaluation of the usability designer role as applied in two Swedish systems development organisations. The role was initially defined by us, but evolved in these two organisations. We conducted interviews with usability designers, project managers and a user representative. Our main research question was whether or not the introduction of a usability designer has been successful in terms of changes in the systems development process and the impact the role has had on products, projects and organisations. To some extent, the role has met our expectations and intentions for instance, in helping the usability designers shift their focus towards design, and assume some kind of "users' advocate" role. But in other ways, the role "failed". The usability designers in our study are still facing the kind of problems and obstacles that usability professionals have always had to deal with. q

This article reviews current efforts in bridging the gaps between software engineering and Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) and describes some critical issues that must be resolved in order to reconcile some of the differences between the two fields. We argue that user‐centered systems design (UCSD) must be tightly integrated in the software development process and suggest the usability design process as a way of doing this. The usability design process is a UCSD approach for developing usable interactive systems, combining usability engineering with interaction design, and emphasizing extensive active user involvement throughout the iterative process. We outline the usability design process and illustrate the steps in the process with examples from real‐life design cases. Finally, we provide an example of how the usability design process can be implemented in a commercial software‐development process, Rational Unified Process™ (RUP). Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.