Usability : Through the use of guidelines and user participation

Abstract: The Department of Engineering Science at University West in Trollhättan was in need of a new system for scheduling personnel, as the existing system is based upon an Excel-file and is hard to work with and does not provide an easy way for the users to collaborate.The purpose of this study was to examine how existing principles and guidelines regarding interface design can be used to create a new web based system with a high usability. The purpose is also to examine how participatory design affects the design process and outcome.To create a system with a high grade of usability, a number of existing rules and guidelines regarding usability and a number of subjects regarding interaction design, were used by the development team as tools.Even though the study showed that usability guidelines can be a valuable tool and provide a good foundation it is important to emphasize the use of other techniques. For example the use of participatory design, which in the study was found to be of great value to the development team.