book

Cost-Justifying Usability, 2nd Edition

by Randolph G. Bias, Deborah J. Mayhew

May 2005

Beginner to intermediate

640 pages

23h 47m

English

Morgan Kaufmann

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Front cover
Title page
Copyright page
Table of contents (1/4)
Table of contents (2/4)
Table of contents (3/4)
Table of contents (4/4)
Preface
GREETINGS, AND BEST WISHESTHE BOOK
THE AUDIENCE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1: Justifying Cost-Justifying Usability
1.1 INTRODUCTION

1.2 LESSONS FROM THE PAST: SEMINAL RESEARCH ON RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN HUMAN FACTORS IN THE 1980S AND 1990S
1.3 WWW.SOWHAT
1.3.1 Who Are All Those People?
1.3.2 If I Had a Hammer, I Wouldn’t Necessarily Be a Carpenter
1.3.3 The Tug of “Internet Time”
1.3.4 The Old “Get Something Out There” Approach Doesn’t Work Anymore
1.3.5 The Dangers of Amateur Usability Engineering
1.3.6 More Capabilities Means More Novice Users
1.3.7 The World Is More Complex, so It Is Harder to Know What All the Possibilities Are
1.4 ISN’T IT OBVIOUS?
1.5 NOT “IF” BUT “WHICH”
1.6 THE SOLUTION: APPROACH, TOOLS, AND COMMUNICATION
REFERENCES
2: User Interface Design’s Return on Investment: Examples and Statistics
2.1 INTRODUCTION: WHAT DO WE MEAN BY THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT OF USABILITY?
2.2 HOW CAN WE “PROVE” THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT? SOME EXAMPLES AND STATISTICS
2.2.1 Overall Value of Implementing User Interface Practices
2.2.2 Development: Reduce Costs
2.2.3 Sales: Increase Revenue
2.2.4 Use: Improve Effectiveness
2.2.5 Other Return on Investment Factors
2.3 CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES
3: A Basic Framework
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 THE USABILITY ENGINEERING LIFECYCLE
3.2.1 Phase One: Requirements Analysis
3.2.2 Phase Two: Design/Testing/Development
3.2.3 Phase Three: Installation
3.3 GENERAL APPROACH
3.4 SAMPLE COST-BENEFIT ANALYSES
3.4.1 An Application for Internal Users (1/5)
3.4.1 An Application for Internal Users (2/5)
3.4.1 An Application for Internal Users (3/5)
3.4.1 An Application for Internal Users (4/5)
3.4.1 An Application for Internal Users (5/5)
3.4.2 A Commercial Application by a Vendor Company (1/2)
3.4.2 A Commercial Application by a Vendor Company (2/2)
3.4.3 An E-Commerce Site (1/2)
3.4.3 An E-Commerce Site (2/2)
3.4.4 A Product Information Site
3.5 SUMMARY
REFERENCES
4: A Business Case Approach to Usability Cost Justification for the Web
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 WHY MEASURE THE COST BENEFIT OF HUMAN FACTORS?
4.3 USABILITY ENGINEERING IN WEB SITE AND APPLICATION LIFECYCLES
4.3.1 What Contributions Can Usability Engineering Demonstrate? (1/2)
4.3.1 What Contributions Can Usability Engineering Demonstrate? (2/2)
4.4 WHAT IS COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS?
4.5 HOW DO COST-BENEFIT ANALYSES RELATE TO BUSINESS CASES?
4.6 ASSESSING COSTS AND BENEFITS OF USABILITY ENGINEERING
4.7 BENEFIT CALCULATIONS EXAMPLES
4.7.1 Increased Sales or Revenues Resulting from Increased Completion Rates on a Web site
4.7.2 Increased Sales and Revenue from Repeat Visits to a Web Site
4.7.3 Increased Sales or Revenues
4.7.4 Increased User Productivity
4.7.5 Decreased Personnel Costs
4.8 USABILITY ENGINEERING COSTS
4.9 COST AND COST-BENEFIT CALCULATION EXAMPLES
4.9.1 Usability Engineering Costs for Repeat Visits to a Web Site
4.10 USABILITY ENGINEERING COSTS FOR APPLICATION 2
4.11 SIMPLE COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES
4.11.1 Payback Period
4.11.2 Payback Period Example
4.12 SOPHISTICATED SELECTION TECHNIQUES
4.12.1 Background
4.12.2 Present Value of a Future Cash Flow Example
4.12.3 Present Value of Cash Inflows Example
4.12.4 Net Present Value
4.12.5 Internal Rate of Return
4.12.6 Further Interest-Based Selection Issues
4.13 SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
4.14 A LOOK AHEAD
REFERENCES
5: Marketing Usability
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.1.1 Some Notes on Terminology
5.1.2 Survey of Usability Practitioners
5.1.3 Marketing 101
5.2 THE MARKET
5.2.1 Internal Factors
5.2.2 External Factors
5.2.3 Identifying the Market
5.3 PRODUCT
5.4 PRICING
5.4.1 Pricing Models
5.5 PROMOTION
5.5.1 Promotional Tactics
5.5.2 The Internet
5.5.3 Internal Promotion
5.6 CONCLUSIONS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES
APPENDIX: SURVEY QUOTES
Do You Have Any Advice for Someone Interested in Marketing Usability Services?
What Do You Think Are the Biggest Challenges with Respect to Marketing Usability Services?
What Do You Think Are the Biggest Opportunities with Respect to Marketing Usability Services?
6: Valuing Usability for Startups
6.1 INTRODUCTION
6.2 NOTES ON DATA ABOUT STARTUPS
6.3 RESISTANCE TO USABILITY IN STARTUPS
6.4 DIFFERENT VALUES DURING THE INTERNET BUBBLE
6.5 TIME-TO-MARKET AND THE “FIRST-MOVER” ADVANTAGE
6.6 FOCUS ON VALUATION—WHAT’S A STARTUP WORTH?
6.7 SUCCESSFUL STARTUPS VALUE THE USER EXPERIENCE
6.8 WHAT USABILITY OFFERS STARTUPS
6.9 A TOOL FOR UNDERSTANDING AND EVALUATING STARTUPS
6.10 HOW DO STARTUPS DETERMINE VALUE?
6.11 HOW MUCH SHOULD STARTUPS INVEST IN USABILITY?
REFERENCES
7: Cost-Justifying Usability in Vendor Companies
7.1 INTRODUCTION
7.2 UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPANY
7.2.1 Customer-Focused Company
7.2.2 Product-Focused Company
7.2.3 Technology-Focused Company7.2.4 Executive-Focused Company
7.2.5 Optimal Data-Driven Company
7.3 COST JUSTIFICATION IN VENDOR COMPANIES
7.4 COST JUSTIFICATION FOR WEB APPLICATIONS
7.5 COSTS
7.5.1 Initial Costs of Building Usability Laboratories
7.5.2 Sustaining Costs
7.6 BENEFITS
7.6.1 Benefits to the Vendor Company: Increased Revenues
7.6.2 Benefits to the Vendor Company and Customers: Decreased Costs
7.7 COST-BENEFIT EXAMPLE
7.8 STRATEGIES FOR MAXIMIZING EFFECTIVENESS
7.8.1 Understand and Align with Business Goals and Values7.8.2 Perform Baseline and Ongoing Measurements
7.8.3 Practice Proactive Public Relations
7.9 SUMMARY
REFERENCES
8: Categories of Return on Investment and Their Practical Implications
8.1 INTRODUCTION
8.2 CATEGORIES OF RETURN ON INVESTMENT
8.3 INTERNAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT
8.4 INTERNAL SOCIAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT
8.5 IMPROVING INTERNAL SOCIAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT
8.5.1 Making Connections
8.5.2 Communicating with Product Teams
8.5.3 Respecting the Rest of the Product Team
8.5.4 Understanding How Others Are Judged
8.5.5 Supporting Groups Outside Mainstream Product Development
8.5.6 Enlisting Quality Assurance Teams as Partners in User Interface Quality
8.6 REUSE AND INTERNAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT
8.6.1 Methods for Raising Awareness of Reuse
8.6.2 Within- and Between-Product Consistency Inspections
8.6.3 User Interface Patterns as a Tool to Promote Reuse
8.6.4 Group User Interface Inspections
8.6.5 Graphic User Interface Rolls for Workflow Assessment and Comparison
8.7 USER-CENTERED DESIGN INFRASTRUCTURE AND RETURN ON INVESTMENT
8.7.1 Templates and Common Documents
8.8 EXTERNAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT
8.9 HISTORICAL, PREDICTIVE, AND SIMULTANEOUS MEASURES
8.10 DIRECT AND INDIRECT MEASURES
8.11 MEASURING IMPROVED USER EXPERIENCE
8.11.1 First-Time Use
8.11.2 The Learning Experience
8.11.3 User Performance by Experienced Users
8.11.4 Need for Customer Support and Service
8.11.5 Customer Satisfaction and Attitudes
8.12 CHALLENGES TO MEASURING EXTERNAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT
8.12.1 User Experience Confounds Outside the User-Centered Design Team
8.12.2 Addressing Confounds with Controlled Testing
8.12.3 Confounds Unrelated to User Experience
8.13 RETURN ON INVESTMENT FROM COMMUNICATING IMPROVED USER EXPERIENCE
8.14 SUMMARY: WHY WE CATEGORIZE USABILITY RETURN ON INVESTMENT
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES
9: Usability Science: Tactical and Strategic Cost Justifications in Large Corporate Applications
9.1 INTRODUCTION
9.2 BENCHMARKING AWARENESS AND ISSUES OF IMPLEMENTATION
9.3 A PROBLEM OF EXPERTISE
9.4 THE OBVIOUS COST-BENEFIT FACTORS
9.5 HOW USABILITY SCIENCE CAN BE UTILIZED IN A LARGE CORPORATE SETTING
9.5.1 Usability Science as a Tactical Asset
9.5.2 Usability Science as a Strategic Asset
9.6 THE ACTUAL DOWNSTREAM IMPACT
9.7 CURRENT TRENDS IN THE APPLICATION OF USABILITY SCIENCE
9.7.1 The Rate of Dispersion of Formal Usability Science into Large Corporate Projects
9.7.2 Summary of Usability Science and Innovation Diffusion
9.7.3 Factors That Slow or Completely Inhibit Diffusion of Usability Science in Large Corporate Settings
9.8 WHERE YOU WILL CURRENTLY NOT FIND USABILITY SCIENCE
9.9 MOVING TO THE USE OF USABILITY SCIENCE AS A STRATEGIC ASSET
9.10 CASE STUDIES: TACTICAL AND STRATEGIC
9.10.1 Liability Claims
9.10.2 Service and Maintenance Costs
9.10.3 Customer Complaints
9.10.4 Increased Complexity in New Products
9.10.5 Market Competition
9.11 SUMMARY
REFERENCES
10: The Return on Investment in Usability of Web Applications
10.1 INTRODUCTION
10.2 RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN USABILITY OF WEB APPLICATIONS
10.3 LESSONS LEARNED FROM ANALYSIS OF RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN USABILITY ON THE WEB
10.4 THE ATTRIBUTES OF VALUE
10.5 CREATING VALUE
10.6 THE COST OF CHANGE
10.7 REDUCING THE RISK OF FAILURE
10.8 MEASURING VALUE
10.9 HOW TO SELL RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN USABILITY
10.10 SUMMARY AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
REFERENCES
WEB SITES OF INTEREST
11: Making the Business Case for International User Centered Design
11.1 INTRODUCTION
11.1.1 Do We Know Our Users?
11.1.2 Our Focus in this Chapter
11.2 THINKING STRATEGICALLY ABOUT INTERNATIONAL UCD
11.2.1 Making Strategic versus Tactical Business Cases
11.2.2 The Strategic Importance of International Markets
11.2.3 Linking Strategic Risk Management and International Design
11.3 THE DREAM OF “SIMPLE” ANSWERS
11.3.1 Translation, Localization, and Internationalization
11.3.2 Cultural Design Guidelines
11.4 CUSTOM UCD RESEARCH
11.4.1 Identifying International User Factors and Contextual Variables Specifically Relevant to Your Domain
11.4.2 Developing Your Own List of Contextual Variables
11.5 UNDERSTANDING COSTS OF INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH
11.5.1 Bilingual Facilitation
11.5.2 Simultaneous Translation
11.5.3 Written Translation
11.5.4 Adapting the Recruiting and Scheduling Strategy
11.5.5 Air-Travel Expenses
11.5.6 Per Diem Expenses
11.5.7 Video and Computer Equipment
11.5.8 What Is the Bottom Line?
11.6 ARE THERE LESS EXPENSIVE WAYS TO COLLECT DATA?
11.6.1 International Discount Methods11.6.2 Hiring Local Consultants
11.6.3 Remote Evaluation
11.7 MAXIMIZING THE VALUE OF INTERNATIONAL UCD RESEARCH
11.7.1 Target the Right Markets for Your Research11.7.2 Do Background Research
11.7.3 Investigate Opportunities for Partnering
11.7.4 Do Ethnographic and Exploratory Visits First11.7.5 Focus Stakeholders on Broader Benefits and Synergies
11.7.6 Develop In-Country Resources
11.7.7 Build Cumulative Learning
SUMMARY
Special Thanks to
REFERENCES (1/2)
REFERENCES (2/2)
12: Cost Justification of Usability Engineering for International Web Sites
12.1 INTRODUCTION12.2 OVERVIEW OF UNIQUE ASPECTS OF USABILITY ENGINEERING FOR INTERNATIONAL USER INTERFACES
12.3 SAMPLE COST-BENEFIT ANALYSES OF USABILITY ENGINEERING ON INTERNATIONAL WEB DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
12.3.1 A Cross-Cultural E-Commerce Web Site (1/4)
12.3.1 A Cross-Cultural E-Commerce Web Site (2/4)
12.3.1 A Cross-Cultural E-Commerce Web Site (3/4)
12.3.1 A Cross-Cultural E-Commerce Web Site (4/4)
12.3.2 A Cross-Cultural Product Information Web Site
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
13: Return on Goodwill: Return on Investment for Accessibility
13.1 INTRODUCTION
13.2 WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO MAKE A WEB SITE ACCESSIBLE?
13.2.1 Visual Impairments
13.2.2 Movement Impairments
13.2.3 The Role of Guidelines and Browser Compatibility
13.3 THE BENEFITS OF ACCESSIBILITY
13.3.1 Enablement
13.3.2 Accessibility Helps Everyone
13.3.3 Public Good and Corporate Citizenship
13.3.4 Social Justice13.3.5 Market Size13.3.6 Niche Markets
13.3.7 Positive Market Perceptions
13.3.8 Legal Requirements
13.3.9 Cost Savings in Service Provision
13.3.10 Cost Savings in Software Development and Maintenance13.3.11 When Is There No Benefit to Designing for Accessibility?
13.4 AUDIENCE DIVERSITY AND MARKET SIZE
13.4.1 Estimating Benefits
13.4.2 Demographic Data on Individual Differences
13.4.3 Uncertainties in Estimation
13.5 THE COSTS OF ACCESSIBLE DESIGN
13.5.1 Retroactive Process to Make Your Site More Accessible
13.5.2 Estimating Costs (1/2)
13.5.2 Estimating Costs (2/2)
13.6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REFERENCES
14: Ethnography for Software Development
14.1 A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ETHNOGRAPHY
14.2 DISTINCTION BETWEEN SITE VISITS AND ETHNOGRAPHY
14.3 ETHNOGRAPHY AT DIFFERENT TIMES IN THE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT CYCLE
14.3.1 Early in the Development Cycle: Near-Term Product Planning and Future Planning
14.3.2 Middle of the Product Development Cycle: Feature-Specific and Product-Specific Questions
14.3.3 Final Phases of the Product Development Cycle
14.3.4 Both Marketing and Public Relations Are also Interested in Field Research
14.4 SOME BEST PRACTICES FOR FIELD RESEARCH
14.4.1 Protocols for Visits
14.5 CASE STUDY 1: WINDOWS XP PROJECT: GUIDELINES FOR A SUCCESSFUL ETHNOGRAPHY—ANNE KIRAH
14.5.1 Phase 0: The Planning Phase
14.5.2 Phase 1: Recruitment of Participants
14.5.3 Phase 2: Exploratory Studies
14.5.4 Phase 3: Participatory Design Sessions
14.5.5 Phase 4: Feature Specific Site Visits and Usability in the Field
14.5.6 Phase 5: Beta Testing in the Field
14.6 CASE STUDY 2: TABLET PC BETA TESTING IN THE FIELD—EVAN FELDMAN
14.6.1 Field Trial 1
14.6.2 Field Trial 2
14.6.3 Field Trial 3
14.6.4 Field Trial 4
14.7 CASE STUDY 3: MSN:FORMING THE PILLARS FOR A RELEASE OF OUR INTERNET SERVICES THROUGH EXPLORATORY RESEARCH—ANNE KIRAH
14.7.1 Communication14.7.2 Safety and Security
14.7.3 Managing Lives
14.7.4 Personalization14.7.5 Development of Main Pillars
SUMMARY
REFERENCES
15: Out of the Box: Approaches to Good Initial Interface Designs
15.1 GETTING IT RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX
15.2 CREATIVE DESIGN
15.2.1 Preparation and Information
15.2.2 Working Within the Rules
15.2.3 Creativity as a Skill
15.3 DESIGN BY ANALOGY
15.4 RATIONAL DESIGN
15.5 DESIGN BASED ON KNOWLEDGE OF PERCEPTUAL AND COGNITIVE PRINCIPLES
15.6 CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REFERENCES
16: Keystroke Level Modeling as a Cost Justification Tool
16.1 INTRODUCTION
16.2 CASE STUDY
Color Insert (1/4)
Color Insert (2/4)
Color Insert (3/4)
Color Insert (4/4)
16.2.1 Model Tasks (1/2)
16.2.1 Model Tasks (2/2)
16.2.2 Run Existing Applications Productivity Test and Use Results to Refine Modeling Technique
16.2.3 Compare Modeling Results to Goals
16.2.4 Address Unmet Goals
16.2.5 Run Proposed Application Productivity Test
16.3 CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
17: The Rapid Iterative Test and Evaluation Method: Better Products in Less Time
17.1 INTRODUCTION
17.2 DEFINITION FOR RITE
17.3 BUSINESS CASE FOR RITE
17.3.1 RITE Method Results in More Issues Fixed
17.3.2 RITE Method Results in More Issues Found
17.3.3 RITE Method Results in Better Team Dynamics
17.3.4 RITE Method Degrades Gracefully
17.3.5 The Pitfalls of Using the RITE Method
17.4 USING RITE EFFECTIVELY
17.5 CASE STUDIES
17.5.1 Case Study 1: Microsoft Age of Empires II Tutorial
17.5.2 Case Study 2: Oracle Interactive Voice Response E-Mail
17.5.3 Case Study 3: Microsoft Digital Image Library
17.6 CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
18: Summative Usability Testing: Measurement and Sample Size
18.1 INTRODUCTION
18.2 TYPES OF USABILITY TESTS
18.3 SUMMATIVE TESTING: METRICS
18.3.1 Effectiveness, Dimensionless, and Embodied Metrics
18.3.2 Efficiency and the Underlying Form of Data
18.3.3 Satisfaction and the Reliability of Metrics
18.3.4 Measuring Usability: In Summary
18.4 STATISTICAL ISSUES
18.4.1 The Statistical Argument, Hypotheses, Rejection, and Power
18.4.2 Different Kinds of Hypotheses
18.4.3 Do We Need Hypotheses?
18.4.4 How Do We Compute Sample Size and Effect Size?
18.4.5 When Do We Compute Sample Size and Effect Size?
18.4.6 Statistics and Reality
18.5 CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
19: Cost-Justifying Online Surveys
NOTE TO READER19.1 ONLINE SURVEYS AND THEIR VALUE
19.1.1 Cost and Return on Investment
19.1.2 A Case Study for Online Usability Research: Staples Inc.
19.2 MECHANICS OF ONLINE SURVEYS
19.2.1 Study Design
19.2.2 Recruiting
19.2.3 Study Administration
19.2.4 Analysis
19.3 MIXING ONLINE WITH OTHER METHODS
19.4 SURVEY VENDORS
19.4.1 Requests for Proposals
19.4.2 References
19.4.3 Do It Yourself: Survey Creation Tools19.5 CONCLUSIONS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES
20: Cost-Benefit Framework and Case Studies
20.1 POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF USABILITY20.2 ESTIMATING COSTS
20.2.1 User-Centered Design Methods
20.2.2 Costs of User-Centered Design
20.3 MAKING THE COST-BENEFIT CASE
20.4 CASE STUDIES
20.4.1 Israel Aircraft Industries (1/2)
20.4.1 Israel Aircraft Industries (2/2)
20.4.2 Inland Revenue/EDS
20.4.3 Comparison
20.4.4 Taking up the Methods
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REFERENCES
21: At Sprint, Understanding the Language of Business Gives Usability a Positive Net Present Value
21.1 INTRODUCTION21.1.1 It Is Time for a Mindset Upgrade
21.2 ADOPTING THE BUSINESS DECISION-MAKING MINDSET
21.2.1 The User Is Not You21.2.2 The Business Decision-Making Mindset
21.2.3 Ignored and Undervalued?
21.3 LINKING FINANCIAL RESULTS TO USABILITY
21.3.1 The Price of Admission
21.3.2 Creating a Valid Assessment
21.3.3 Sprint’s Program-Oriented Approach
21.3.4 Identifying the Link Between Usability Data and Financial Results
21.4 CONCLUSION
21.4.1 Brave New World
21.4.2 You Are Aligned
REFERENCES
22: Cost-Justifying Usability: The View from the Other Side of the Table
22.1 INTRODUCTION
22.2 THE EXECUTIVES
22.2.1 Joyce Durst, Infraworks Corporation22.2.2 Sara Garrison, Inovant22.2.3 Bill Mitchell, Microsoft22.2.4 Kim Rachmeler, Amazon.com
22.2.5 A Quick Thanks
22.3 QUESTION #1: WHAT ARGUMENTS TO PAY FOR USABILITY SUPPORT HAVE YOU SAID “YES” TO?
22.4 QUESTION #2: WHICH ARGUMENTS HAVE YOU SAID “NO” TO?
22.5 QUESTION #3: WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOUR WOULD-BE USABILITY SUPPORT (THE IN-HOUSE TEAM OR A CONSULTANT), TO HELP YOU MAKE YOUR DECISION TO “BUY” OR NOT?
22.6 THREE FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
22.6.1 Starting Up22.6.2 The Attribution Problem
22.6.3 The “Compleat Angler” (for Usability Funding)
22.7 AND SO . . .
Index (1/6)
Index (2/6)
Index (3/6)
Index (4/6)
Index (5/6)
Index (6/6)
About the Authors (1/2)
About the Authors (2/2)

Content preview from Cost-Justifying Usability, 2nd Edition

registration application. Conversely, users on the Web can try one travel reser-

vation system, and if it has poor usability, they can switch to another system within

seconds. Improved usability helps a company’s site attract and retain more users.

The cost-justiﬁcation of Web-based applications is addressed in more detail in

Chapter 10.

7.5 COSTS

One of the most problematic shortcomings in business is that companies

measure and track what is easy to measure and not necessarily what is important

to measure. As a result, some costs, including employees, equipment, buildings,

and construction, are measured and tracked, whereas other costs, such as project ...

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Cost-Justifying Usability, 2nd Edition

by Randolph G. Bias, Deborah J. Mayhew

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