Driving usability into the public administration: the Italian experience

The Italian Public Administration (PA) represents an important testbed for fulfilment of software usability in real settings. This is due to the volume of existing applications, the various types of ongoing projects and the potential users to whom the produced applications are addressed (both internal PA users and citizen-users). Most acquisitions of computer products in the PA are made in terms of ad hoc developments. This type of development could provide, in principle, the best condition for usability purposes, i.e. a constant contiguity between designers and users. Unfortunately, this does not lead to user-centred projects and usable products in reality. To analyse the current situation and propose improvements, the Italian authority which controls the software diffusion in PAs (Autorità per l'Informatica nella Pubblica Amministrazione—AIPA) created a working group, the Usability Working Group— UWG. Among the various activities of the group, two tests carried out for the PA on two different development designs of interactive systems gave several hints. The UWG also produced the guidelines for setting up PA contracts including usability as a key requirement for the interactive systems to be supplied. This paper reports the tests, compares the results with the ISO 13407 (1999) standard, and outlines the main indications coming from the proposed guidelines. Finally, the outcome and influence of the UWG activities on the PA contracts is discussed.