When competitive products provide similar functionality, usability engineering is vital for product acceptance. Many organizations have created usability laboratories to provide expert reviews and conduct usability tests of products during development. These and other evaluation strategies are covered in Chapter 4. High-level commitment helps promote attention at every level. Of course, resistance to new techniques and a changing role for software engineers can cause problems in organizations.
Organizational change is difficult, but creative leaders blend inspiration and provocation.
The high road is to appeal to the desire for quality that most professionals share. When they are shown data on shortened learning times, faster performance, or lower error rates on well-designed interfaces, they are likely to be more sympathetic to applying usability engineering methods. The low road is to point out the frustration, confusion, and high error rates due to the current complex designs, while indicating the efforts of competitors to apply usability engineering methods. This dual strategy balances the needs for centralized expertise and decentralized application. As the field matures and projects will grow in complexity, size, and importance.