The NIST Industry USability Reporting (IUSR) project seeks to improve the testing and reporting of software product usability, thereby reducing the uncontrolled costs of poor usability. As part of this effort, ITL sponsored a two-day Industry USability Reporting (IUSR) project workshop in September to begin a pilot trial to validate the value of reporting usability data in decision-making processes. Attendees included prominent industry representatives from software suppliers as well as organizations who are large software purchasers. The goal of the pilot trial is to determine how well the Common Industry Format (CIF) for usability reporting works and to determine the value of using the format in software procurement.

At the meeting, vendors and consumers discussed their responsibilities during the pilot trial and defined the metrics for NIST to use in measuring the effectiveness of the CIF. Participants also reviewed the CIF for reporting usability results and outlined how and when revisions will be made during the pilot study. Additional representatives from major corporations, not initially involved in the project, attended and many others expressed interest in participating in the trials, further publicizing this effort to trade publications and organizations, and planning for including future drafts of the CIF into their business processes. For more information, see http://www.nist.gov/iusr.

CONTACT: Sharon Laskowski, ext. 4535