Related Fields
This section describes the usability profession’s relationship to other fields. It includes a brief description of related fields.
Contents
- What are usability professionals and how do they relate to other professions?
- Related disciplines
- Other Professional Organizations
- Related Bodies of Knowledge
What are usability professionals and how do they relate to other professions?
Usability professionals are practitioners and academics who share a common concern for the usability of human-machine systems.
Usability’s goal is to contribute to the design of a system that provides optimal human performance and ensures the best possible user experience. Practitioners carry out user-centered design activities that introduce user considerations into the system development process. Academics perform teaching duties and conduct research regarding the usability of human-machine systems. Note that the scope of user centered design is defined further in ISO 13407.
Most usability practitioners work in product development, such as software products, consumer electronics, or in the creation of devices incorporating both hardware and software components. Their chief concern is the usability of that product. The goal of their work is to contribute to the design of a system that provides optimal human performance and ensures the best possible user experience.
Usability professionals do not work in isolation – rather, they collaborate with people from many backgrounds. Usability complements and overlaps with many related professional activities including:
- Human factors/ergonomics, which applies scientific information concerning humans to the design of objects, systems and environments for human use. It includes designing for human physiology and optimizing performance in large corporate and military systems.
- Experience design, which takes account of people and organizations in ways useful for business and design, and conceives, envisions, and informs what products, services, and communications to make.
- Information architecture, which focuses on organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability.
- Interaction design, which defines the structure and behaviors of interactive products and services and user interactions with those products and services.
- Information design, which specializes in the organization and presentation of textual and visual information.
- Industrial design, which focuses on physical solutions to user and manufacturer needs.
- Graphic design, which focuses on clarity of pictorial representations and overall visual appearance.
Many usability practitioners incorporate aspects of these specialisms in their jobs. (For a more complete list, see the list of related professional organizations.) All these professions share the objective of contributing to the design of systems that work better for the people who experience them.
Related disciplines
Usability and related professions borrow from many academic disciplines including:
- Human Computer Interaction
- Physiology/Anthropometry
- Anthropology
- Cognitive Psychology
- Behavioral Psychology
- Experimental Psychology
- Industrial/Organizational Psychology
- Sociology
- Artificial Intelligence
- Computer Science
- Software Engineering
- Requirements Engineering
- Engineering
- Library Science
- Film
- Design
- Art
- Communications
- Technical Communication
- Business
There are many ways of illustrating the relationship between usability and related fields, for example:
- The usability vectors on the UPA web site illustrate that usability is one of a number of related disciplines with the common goal of a good user experience.
- Which disciplines contribute to which usability activities (by Lisa Battle).
Other Professional Organizations
HCI and Human Factors |
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Human Factors and Ergonomics Society |
Theory, principles, data, and other methods applied to design to optimize human well-being and overall system performance |
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Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction |
Human technology and human-computer interaction (HCI) |
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AIS Special Interest Group on Human-Computer Interaction |
Human-computer interaction (HCI) for business information systems |
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The British HCI group |
Analysis, design, implementation and evaluation of technologies for human use |
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The Ergonomics Society |
Application of scientific information concerning humans to the design of objects, systems and environment for human use. |
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International Ergonomics Association |
Federation of ergonomics and human factors societies |
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Internet Technical Group |
Internet technologies and related behavioral phenomena |
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Technical Communication and Information Design |
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Society for Technical Communication |
Advancing the arts and sciences of technical communication |
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STC Usability and User Experience |
Usability and usability assessment of technical communication |
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STC Information Design and Architecture SIG |
Application of design principles to translating complex, unorganized, or unstructured data into valuable, meaningful information, combining skills in areas including graphic design, writing and editing, instructional design, human performance technology, and human factors. |
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Professional Communication Society of IEEE |
Understanding and promoting effective communication in engineering, scientific, and other technical environments |
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ACM Special Interest Group for Documentation |
Teacher, researcher, or practitioner of technical communication, computer science, user interface design |
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Information Architecture and Design |
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AIGA Experience Design |
Organizational connection and communication, understanding people, in ways useful for business and design, and conceive, envision, and inform what products, services, and communications to make. |
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Interaction Design Association |
Defines the structure and behaviors of interactive products and services and user interactions with those products and services |
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The Information Architecture Institute |
The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities, software, and hardware controls to support usability and findability. |
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Association for Computing Machinery special interest group on computer graphics and interactive techniques |
Promote the generation and dissemination of information on computer graphics and interactive techniques |
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International Institute for Information Design |
Design of visual information |
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American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) Special Interest Group Information Needs Seeking and Use (USE) |
People's behavioral and cognitive activities as well as their affective [many people don’t know what this means – should we use a synonym (emotional) ?] states as they interact with information |
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American Society for Information Science and Technology Special Interest Group Information Architecture |
Art, science, and business of organizing information so that it makes sense to people who use it |
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American Institute of Graphic Arts |
Includes book and type design, communication design, interaction design, experience design and motion graphics. |
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Design Management Institute |
To advocate the economic and cultural importance of design, and to make accessible a body of knowledge on design effectiveness in business |
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Industrial Designers Society of America |
Creating and developing concepts and specifications that optimize the function, value and appearance of products and systems for the mutual benefit of both user and manufacturer |
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Training and Human Performance |
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International Society for Performance Improvement |
Improving productivity and performance in the workplace |
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American Society for Training and Development |
Workplace learning and performance professionals |
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Software Development and Project Management |
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Association for Computing Machinery |
Advancing the skills of information technology professionals and students worldwide |
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The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society |
Provider of technical information, community services, and personalized services to the world's computing professionals |
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Project Management Institute |
Project management professionals worldwide |
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American Society for Quality |
Advances learning, quality improvement, and knowledge exchange to improve business results, and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide |
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International Federation for Information Processing |
Umbrella organization for national societies working in the field of information processing. |
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American Society for Information Science & Technology |
New and better theories, techniques, and technologies to improve access to information |
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Other Societies |
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Marketing Research Association |
Your link to a world of powerful resources |
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The Product Development and Management Association |
Resources for professional development, information, collaboration and promotion of new product development and management. |
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American Psychological Association - |
Professional and scientific organization for psychologists in the USA. [note that there is probably an international organization but I’m not up on that.] |
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APA Division of Applied and Experimental and Engineering Psychology |
The division of APA that focuses on applied experimental and engineering psychology research to improve the ability of humans to operate more effectively in a technological society. |
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Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility |
A public interest group that is concerned about the impact of technology on people. |
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Related Bodies of Knowledge
Body of Knowledge on Quality Management |
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American Society for Quality (ASQ) - Software Quality Engineer Certification (CSQE) Body of Knowledge |
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Guide to the Enterprise Architecture Body of Knowledge |
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Marketing Research Core Body of Knowledge |
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The PDMA Body of Knowledge |
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Project Management Institute (PMI) - Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) |
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Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute Software Engineering Body of Knowledge |
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Social Research Methods Knowledge Base |
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IEEE Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) |
ISO 13407:1999 Human centred design processes for interactive systems. [Can be purchased from www.iso.org or webstore.ansi.org ]