Increasing ease of use
Karel Vredenburg · Communications of the ACM · 1999
Ease of use is a strategic focus within International Business Machine Corp. (IBM) and the User Centered Design (UCD) approach suggested by the author. IBM UCD is targeted at designing competitive ease of use into the total user experience with hardware, software and services offerings. It ensures that products are easy to buy, easy to unpack, easy to set up, easy to upgrade, easy to learn, easy to use, engaging, intuitive and integrated. The IBM approach essentially involves having a multidisciplinary method. A human factors organization was first established at IBM over four decades ago and various usability and human-factors methods have been used over the years. A new approach, IBM's version of UCD, was developed in the early 1990's. Challenges in a large and mature UCD organization like IBM are clearly different from those in a small pioneering group like that at Danfoss. It is interesting but also difficult to understand how the widespread UCD employees are able to keep in contact and learn from each other. INSET: Case Study: DB2 Universal Database.