Karel Vredenburg

The state of user-centered design practice

This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

Building ease of use into the IBM user experience

This issue of the IBM Systems Journal explores the topic of building ease of use into the IBM user experience with hardware, software, Web sites, and services. This paper provides an overview of the process and organizational transformation that IBM has gone through in improving the user experience with our offerings. IBMs process for building ease of use into the user experience is described and two versions of the process are introduced and contrasted. The IBM User-Centered Design (UCD) approach, which has been used for the last several years, is contrasted with the traditional approach to the development of offerings. A recent major enhanced version of the process, called User Engineering (UE), which is optimized for the IBM e-business on demandTM strategy, is contrasted with the existing UCD process. The key elements of our enablement, leadership, and guidance strategy for these processes are outlined, including mission, process integration, education and training, communication, collaboration, and tools and technology. An overview of the papers in this issue is also provided.

Increasing ease of use

Origins 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 1990s. Based initially on Norman and Draper’s seminal work on user-centered system design [3], IBM’s UCD approach also incorporated key ideas from Hamel and Prehalad’s work on Strategic Intent [1], Wiklund’s sumEase of use is a strategic focus within IBM and our

Usability in Practice: user experience lifecycle - evolution and revolution

The practice of usability and user-centered design must integrate with many other activities in the product development lifecycle. This integration requires political savvy, knowledge of a wide variety of methods, flexibility in using methods, inspiration, and innovation. The speakers and their colleagues have met these requirements and describe their experience fitting various methods into design and development efforts. This forum highlights their successes and setbacks.

A Survey of User-Experience Development at Enterprise Software Companies

Developers worldwide wish to understand what major companies are doing in user-experience development (UXD). UXD comprises activities in user-centered design of user experience, specifically user-interface development (metaphors, mental models, navigation, interaction, and appearance) that is useful for planning, research, analysis, design, implementation, evaluation, and documentation of products/services across a wide number of platforms. This paper reports the results of a survey conducted with six enterprise software companies.

National and international frameworks for collaboration between HCI research and practice

This workshop will focus on methods of forging ties between industry practitioners and research communities. Furthermore the workshop focuses on the input that is required from government bodies to stimulate this collaboration. Participants will discuss enabling conditions for collaborative projects, based on the various practical research experiences of the participants.

Industry briefs: IBM

Karel Vredenburg is the Architect and Corporate Champion for User-Centered Design at IBM. He has responsibility for IBM’s UCD methods and tools, and leads IBM’s UCD practitioners. Karel joined IBM in 1988 after having done graduate studies, research, and teaching at the University of Toronto. He introduced UCD at IBM in 1993 and assumed his present company-wide role in 1995. His most recent publication is a book, Making Products Easy: Practical User-Centered Design Techniques and Technologies. He also runs a workshop series at industry conferences entitled, “Practical UCD: How to Introduce, Deploy, and Optimize User-Centered Design.”

Interactive narrative and knowledge stewardship

This workshop will bring together a diverse set of participants to explore the use of interactive narrative for knowledge stewardship. Participants will bring existing or proposed interactive narratives for analysis and review. The workshop will also develop a draft research agenda linking various disciplinary perspectives.