Procuring Usability: Experiences of Usability Testing in Tender Evaluation

Comparing software systems for a purchase decision in a highly regulated public procurement process is a new domain for usability testing. We performed a comparative summative usability evaluation of Current Research Information Systems (CRIS) as a part of a public procurement process in Finland, EU. The evaluation method had to provide objective and unbiased results for comparison and it had to be defined in detail already in the invitation to tender. In this paper, we report the details of our successful procedure that enabled straightforward and quick decision making in selecting the winning system. Additionally, we present calculations to legitimate the potentially higher investment costs through estimated savings and increased income.