Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
development process models and UCD models when developing web applications.
Accordingly, the objectives of this study are to:
1.
Explore the software development processes in practice by SMEs that develop web
applications.
2.
Investigate the SMEs understanding of usability and assess their level of commit-
ment to it within the development process.
3.
Investigate the gap between the development processes practiced by SMEs devel-
oping web applications and the proposed software development process models,
standards and best practices.
4.
Investigate the gap between usability awareness and practices among SMEs and
usability standards and UCD guidelines.
5.
Gain an understanding of why SMEs do, or do not, integrate usability into their
web development process.
2 Usability and Web Development Processes
Although usability is gaining widespread recognition, confusion exists as to what is
meant by the term usability [9]. For some it focuses on the User Interface, dealing with
issues such as user of color, pleasing layout and consistent terminology. For others it
deals with the software's overall structure, how productively it allows the user to com-
plete their tasks and how easy it is to learn [10]. This study adopts the definitions put
forward by the ISO (ISO 9241-11) which defines usability as: “the extent to which a
product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness,
efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use”.
The process by which one achieves good usability in a product is known as User-
Centred Design (UCD). This is also referred to as usability engineering or human-
centred design. Many UCD design models put forward and all contain the key element
of involving the user in all stages of the development process [11]. This is in contrast to
a traditional software development process, which only involves the user in specific
stages of the lifecycle, such as requirements analysis and acceptance testing.
Studies have shown that user-centred design techniques are still underused among
development teams [12] and most usability issues are only detected during testing and
after deployment [13, 14]. Of those practicing UCD, one investigation revealed that
the majority of methods in practice were informal, low-cost user-centered design
methods. The most commonly used methods were iterative design, usability evalua-
tion, task analysis, informal expert review, and field studies [15]. Obstacles given for
not implementing UCD techniques include a lack of awareness of usability across the
company, lack of usability experience, poor management support and marketing pres-
sures [16]. Another reason given is the fact that UCD techniques are developed in
isolation from the software engineering community and real company environments
and thus do not take into account how well they will work in terms of team buy-in,
and resources [17].
2.1 Web Development Processes
Many current software development models have been criticized as not meeting the
unique requirements of web application development [7, 4] and accordingly there is a
