Usability Gaining a Competitive Edge Ifip 17th World Computer Congress--Tc13 Streamon Usability Gaining a Competitive Edge, August 25-30, 2002, Montreal

Usability has become increasingly important as an essential part of the design and development of software and systems for all sectors of society, business, industry, government and education, as well as a topic of research. As interactive systems have become the norm and the variety of hardware and software has increased, it is no longer sufficient to just make the technology work in a functional and reliable manner. Now the usability of the technology for any given application or situation can be measured in terms of how easily, effectively and efficiently people can use it to accomplish their tasks and achieve their goals. Just as important as functionality is whether and to what extent users of technology are satisfied with their experiences when using technology. New ways of design and development, incorporating usability, have been proposed and documented and many projects undertaken to explore how to improve and enhance the lives of people when using information technology and communication systems. Improving the design process and product quality benefits not only business and industry, but also the people who use the systems and products. These benefits can only be achieved today by integrating usability into the mainstream of the system development life cycle. Usability: Gaining a Competitive Edge presents contributions from practitioners and researchers from many countries. Starting with an introduction of the problems that industry faces today and suggested usability solutions to these problems, the book explores the following technical areas: -User-Centred Design Process; -Usability of Mobile Systems; -User Requirements Analysis; -Usability Evaluation; -Tools; -Web Usability; -Frameworks for Usability. Usability: Gaining a Competitive Edge contains the edited proceedings of Stream 9 of the 17th World Computer Congress, which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Montr?al, Qu?bec, Canada in August 2002.Hammond, Judy is the author of 'Usability Gaining a Competitive Edge Ifip 17th World Computer Congress--Tc13 Streamon Usability Gaining a Competitive Edge, August 25-30, 2002, Montreal', published 2002 under ISBN 9781402071874 and ISBN 1402071876.