Critical factors for starting usability engineering in the workplace

There is much documented evidence which supports usability engineering, but it is still hard for first-time usability testers to convince management and development staff to invest in usability. Usability testing is still associated with laboratory testing; the expense of building a lab may inhibit smaller, grass-roots movements towards usability. This paper describes practical issues in initiating usability engineering inexpensively, including: understanding the full usability process and where to start, choosing the first project, determining appropriate measures and benchmarks, getting results of usability investigations out, and following through to build usability.>