Procuring a usable system using unemployed personas

This case study examines a procurement project where the Swedish National Labor Market Administration (AMV) hired usability consultants in order to redesign their website for employment exchange. The user centered design process was part of a larger project to define how the website could be reorganized to better support new organizational goals. The project was managed by a procurement group that had already defined the organizational requirements for the website. They hired the usability consultants to learn about user requirements and to specify an information architecture and design. The usability company suggested a process with a user research phase and an iterative design phase. The primary deliverables would be personas and an evaluated prototype. The results demonstrate how the user centered design process can effectively be used by active procuring organizations as a bridge between abstract organizational requirements and concrete systems requirements. Tools such as personas and prototypes helped the procurers to understand and prioritize among requirements, as well as to communicate their work to the organization. These tools will be used in the continued work to specify and develop the system.