How do software developers work with usability? : Software developers’ view on usability and user centred design.

Internet and digital products such as websites, are used daily in people's lives. To meet customer demands and get happy and satisfied customers, as well as reaching the company’s financial goals, companies need to look closer to the usability of their digital products. Throughout this study our goal was to investigate how software developers work with usability in their everyday job. A qualitative research approach were used as research strategy for this study. The study was performed by conducting semi-structured interviews with six software developers. All interviews were recorded and then transcribed. The material was then analysed using the method qualitative content analysis to study reoccurring themes in the interviews, with the purpose to investigate how the software developers reason and work with usability and ultimately user-centred design. The study led to the conclusion that usability is perceived as important in web development by all six participants interviewed. User centred methods such as internal testing and A/B-testing was often used by the participants in the development process. However, the most common method used by the participants was identified as being internal testing with the help of colleagues. We could identify that through the development process the participants reason and work with usability attributes in different ways and to a varying extent, with the purpose to create a user centred design for websites.