To truly become a user-centred organization, companies almost always progress through the same sequence of steps, gradually increasing their levels of commitment to usability.

Jakob Nielsen outlines this process in eight stages of maturity:

Stage 1: Hostility Toward Usability
Stage 2: Developer-Centered Usability
Stage 3: Skunkworks Usability
Stage 4: Dedicated Usability Budget
Stage 5: Managed Usability
Stage 6: Systematic Usability Process
Stage 7: Integrated User-Centered Design
Stage 8: User-Driven Corporation

According to Jakob Nielsen, it takes about twenty years to move from stage 2 to 7 and another twenty years to reach the last stage.

Links:

• Corporate Usability Maturity: Stages 1-4 
• Corporate Usability Maturity: Stages 5-8 

Henrik Olsen - May 01, 2006

This book by Eric Schaffer (Founder & CEO of Human Factors International) answers the question: "How do I make usability routine in my business?" ... and provides the case for corporate commitment.

Usability must be institutionalized as a sustained, routine, and necessary part of the business process.

Executives, managers, and practitioners need a mature usability engineering capability with infrastructure, standards, training, and proper staffing.

Links:

• Details at the Human Factors web site 
• Order at Amazon 
• Order at Barnes & Noble 
• Related guuui.com posting 

Pieter-Jan Pruuost - June 10, 2004

See also: Books (47) 

User-centred design professionals pay special attention to one type of stakeholders

Links:

• The article Understanding Organizational Stakeholders for Design Success 

Henrik Olsen - June 07, 2004

Introducing a user-centred design approach in an organisation can sometimes be difficult. According to Jesse James Garrett, some of the most common objections are:

- We know our users - they're just like us.
- We know our users - we've done all this market research.
- All we have to do is follow this list of guidelines.
- The interface is trivial compared to the technical work we need to do.
- It takes experts to understand user behavior. We don't have that kind of money.
- It doesn't take experts to understand user behavior. We'll figure it out as we go.
- We'll fix it in QA.
- We can't make room for it in the schedule.

As a result, "Most Web sites are not designed. They are, at best, contrived - roughly patched together using a mix of half-understood guidelines, imitations of approaches taken by other sites, and personal preferences masquerading as "common sense""

Links:

• The article All Those Opposed - Making the case for user experience in a budget-conscious climate 

Henrik Olsen - July 28, 2003

What's the most difficult part of UX work? Very simple: changing the organization. More in the column.

Links:

• Read the full column 

Mars Hurst - June 20, 2003

Introducting a user-centered design process in a company can be a challenge. Whitney Quesenbery recommends applying an iterative and user-centered approach when doing so.

Links:

• The article Being User-Centered When Implementing a UCD Process 

Henrik Olsen - September 29, 2002

See also: Tips and guidelines (93) 

Louis Rosenfeld has put out a brief survey to learn a little bit about whom Information Architects are trying to promote IA to, what gets in the way, and what might help Information Architects to do a better job.

Some highlights from the survey:
- Hardest part of promoting IA: 27% don't get a chance until their projects are too deep into the design/development process
- What would help: 82% plead for ROI cases, 72% for case studies of successful projects
- Hardest audience: Our clients' decision-makers

Links:

• Louis Rosenfeld's comments to the results 
• The results in full detail 

Henrik Olsen - May 14, 2002

See also: Research (128) 

This article tells you what it really takes to design truly good user experiences. It's all about caring for and understanding your users.

Some of the differences between companies that are successful with usability and the ones that are not, are:
- They really put user fist, and relegate technology, implementation, office politics, and everything else to a lower priority
- They keep the users visible by keeping photos of their users posted in the offices
- They try to gather as much information about the users from as many sources as possible
- The require all new hires to go on a site visit within the first two weeks on the job

Links:

• The article: How Usability-Focused Companies Think 

Henrik Olsen - February 23, 2002