IBM on the role of the user experience designer and on ease of use

According to an IBM UX fact sheet, the user experience designer creates a design that satisfies the business, market and user requirements received from market planning and user experience research, while at the same time incorporating the feedback received from user experience evaluation.

IBM then goes on to describe the goals, activities, products and required skills.

Interesting too is a 2003 issue of IBM’s Systems Journal (html / pdf) is devoted to ease of use.

Twelve papers focus on aspects of design for ease of use as applied to the entire design process, from understanding user requirements to conceptual design, prototyping, field testing, and redesigning.

The history and future of User-Centered Design (UCD) and User Engineering (UE) are discussed, and case studies illustrating the role of UCD and UE in many fields are presented. Topics include the design of wireless devices, on-screen documentation, and database management and data visualisation systems.