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Peter Hunter
User-centered Design Analyst
Euroclear |
Usability: A means to validate business requirements
by Jesse Berkowitz
"Like many people in IT, I was guilty of thinking that I knew what behavior end-users needed from their systems," says Peter Hunter, a user-centered design analyst at Euroclear. "Exposure to usability over the past 18 months has shown me that the only way to really know is to consult them directly."
With its headquarters in Belgium, Euroclear is the world's largest provider of settlement and related services for both domestic and cross-border securities transactions. Euroclear cover bonds, equities and investment funds for financial institutions in more than 80 countries. When Euroclear decided to consolidate its multi-market settlement applications onto a single platform, the importance of usability hit home.
| "User-centered design gave us a means to validate business requirements, challenge system architecture design decisions, and prove where things could be better. Weight of evidence is a powerful tool and often turns things on their head. Usability's basis in science gives people food for thought." |
"The GUI redesign had to respect the need for localization across Europe and have a flexible architecture to allow for expansion into new markets too," says Peter. "Because of this system's significance to our business, and as it will take several years to complete, we realized the importance of getting it right first time – and saw usability as the key to doing so."
While client "wish-lists" have existed for years, Euroclear grasped the distinction between what users say they want, versus what they actually do while interacting with a system. To understand user needs and motivations, the usability team advocated a 4-step approach:
- Ask
- Validate
- Test
- Prove
"User-centered design gave us a means to validate business requirements, challenge system architecture design decisions, and prove where things could be better," Peter says. "Weight of evidence is a powerful tool and often turns things on their head. Usability's basis in science gives people food for thought."
Usability caught on quickly at Euroclear because Peter and his colleagues demonstrated how it impacted the entire development process, not just isolated areas. Once user-centered design became established as an agreed-upon method, it naturally gained momentum as people appreciated its worth and began to apply usability techniques on their own.
"We've been successful at evangelizing usability and involving stakeholders from the very early stages," comments Peter. "Usability is becoming institutionalized by osmosis and the whole development process is more enjoyable. The preliminary deliverables on our system redesign have all been very well received and show that usability really works."
Peter and three other colleagues, who form the core of the User-Centered Design (UCD) team at Euroclear, took HFI's training program and earned their Certified Usability Analyst credentials.
In Peter's opinion the HFI CUA program provided the UCD team with valuable credibility during the initial stages of the project and contributed to early adoption of usability practices at Euroclear.
"If you want a credential that's recognized in the industry without going back to school for two years, HFI's CUA Program is an appropriate choice. It is a credible source of training, backed by decades of research and experience," he explains. "We've certainly benefited from the CUA program and methods."
Becoming a usability analyst has even had "side effects" for Peter outside of his usual work.
"Now I can't even look at the office coffee machine without thinking 'the options on this thing could be a lot more usable,'" he laughs. "Usability permeates everything I do."
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