The Usability Business, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2001 Making the Web Work Practitioner Series

Reviews of the 'Politics of Usability' by the same editors:
"Designing quality web sites or easy-to-use software is simple: just employ established usability engineering methods. The only hard part is getting people to actually do so instead of basing the design on their own intuition. Luckily, the authors in this book know all the devious tricks that are necessary to get development organizations to do the right thing. Follow their advice and the usability of your products will double."
Dr Jakob Nielsen, Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer, Author of 'Usability Engineering'
"This well written book shows how to overcome many of the problems of putting research into the theories, methods and techniques of human computer interaction to work in commercial systems projects."
Dave Clarke, Consultant, Visualize Software - Computer Bulletin, September 1998
A follow-up to the successful 'Politics of Usability' this book shows how to apply HCI expertise in the pressured environment of a modern organisation. Quite apart from the need to provide a good usability service cheaply and efficiently, most HCI practitioners also have to deal with day-to-day concerns such as funding, budgets, project and people management, teamwork, communication and promoting an HCI ethos within the company. How to achieve this and still find new ways to make modern technology more usable is the central message of this book.
The Usability Business offers a unique insight into usability issues. The book deals with real work situations focussing on practical, workable approaches to professional responsibilities.

I: Usability Professionals: Dealing with Organizational Politics in an Uncertain World.- 1. The Myth of Objectivity: Making the Transition from Ivory Tower to Real-World Usability Evaluation.- 2. No Usability Test Is an Island: Is Our Expertise Enough on Its Own?.- 3. Who Moved My Lab? The Effect of Constant Organizational Change on Usability Practice.- 4. “What Does That Button Do?” Effective Usability Project Scheduling Around Complicated and Unfamiliar Technology.- II: A New Usability for New Applications: Adapting Our Skills, Growing Our Role.- 5. “I Enjoyed That This Much!” A Technique for Measuring Usability in Leisure-Oriented Applications.- 6. Caught Between Real and Virtual Worlds.- 7. The XMod Files: Defining and Designing the “User Experience”.- 8. Prototypes and Archetypes: Coping with Adult Behaviour in the Development of Information Systems for Children.- 9. Prototypes in Web-Site Design — Representations with Political Agenda.- III: Politics and New Media: the Overwhelming Importance of Usability on the Web.- 10. The Politics of Intranet Usability: Can One Size Fit All?.- 11. Developing Intranets Which People Use: Making Progress When Everyone Has an Opinion.- 12. Getting Past the Home Page: Structuring Information with People in Mind.- 13. Strategies to Make E-Business More Customer-Centred.

Updated to include new areas where usability is thriving: e-business, new media, intranets and telecommunications Takes a new approach - covering real, political and professional challenges rather than theoretical situations Confronts difficult 'political' situations within the professional environment, and provides advice for dealing with them