Case Study: Promoting Usability at Lucent Technologies - Part 1

Karen L. Ziech - Performance Technologist
Information Products & Training, Lucent Technologies

Cheryl L. Coyle, Ph.D. - Technical Manager, Human Factors
Bell Labs Research, Lucent Technologies

History
Human Factors (HF) has a long history at Lucent Technologies.  The first Human Factors group was formed in AT&T Bell Labs back in the 1940’s.  In the years between 2000 and 2003, however, as Lucent downsized, many human factors experts were decentralized, had their work re-directed to other functions, such as Systems Engineering or Development, or simply left the company.  Those of us HF-minded employees remaining at Lucent continued to do our jobs, lamenting the fact that our community had disappeared.  One small group of HF people (three technical folks and one manager) was the only official remnant of a former empire.  This group was in occasional contact with four other HF-sympathetic Lucent employees: three re-deployed HF experts and a pro-usability Performance Technologist in the customer documentation and training organization. 

During the summer of 2004, an idea sparked in the remaining small, centralized HF group to organize the other “usability-minded” individuals in Lucent in order to promote a feeling of community.  We brainstormed and contacted all the folks we remembered to see what kind of interest existed in the formation of such a community.  The purpose of the community was still ill defined, other than to come together for mutual support.  Within a short time, a small group was on board, we had a name, Usability Special Interest Group (USIG), and by the time of the first meeting in August, about 20 members were on our distribution list.