TY - JOUR
T1 - How Unusable Systems Can Be Successes
T2 - When You Are Not a Stakeholder
AU - Ritter, Frank E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
PY - 2024/1
Y1 - 2024/1
N2 - I have recently used several systems that are not usable but have been declared successes. Success means that their use is increasing, no one was fired, and the usability problems are solved by the users who either work much harder or through surrogates. After defining usability, I describe these systems and provide a list of reasons why these systems are both unusable and successes, seemingly a paradox for human factors. The article concludes by explaining this paradox, noting several ways this can happen, particularly when stakeholders’ viewpoints are excluded or discounted by designers and by other types of users.
AB - I have recently used several systems that are not usable but have been declared successes. Success means that their use is increasing, no one was fired, and the usability problems are solved by the users who either work much harder or through surrogates. After defining usability, I describe these systems and provide a list of reasons why these systems are both unusable and successes, seemingly a paradox for human factors. The article concludes by explaining this paradox, noting several ways this can happen, particularly when stakeholders’ viewpoints are excluded or discounted by designers and by other types of users.
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U2 - 10.1177/10648046211024866
DO - 10.1177/10648046211024866
M3 - Comment/debate
AN - SCOPUS:85111431894
SN - 1064-8046
VL - 32
SP - 56
EP - 61
JO - Ergonomics in Design
JF - Ergonomics in Design
IS - 1
ER -