Applying the new software engineering code of ethics to usability engineering: A study of four cases
| Published date | 01 August 2003 |
| Date | 01 August 2003 |
| Pages | 119-132 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14779960380000231 |
| Author | Oliver K. Burmeister,John Weckert |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Applying the New Software Engineering Code of
Ethics to Usability Engineering: A Study of Four Cases
1. INTRODUCTION
The focus of this paper is on helping usabil-
ity engineers apply the new joint ACM
(ACM, 2000) and IEEE-CS (IEEE- CS,
2000) Software Engineering Code of
Ethics and Professional Practice (version
5.2), hereafter referred to as the “SE code”,
to actual experiences. This version of the
SE code has found acceptance by two major
computing societies and has been adopted
by many multinational companies
(Gotterbarn, Miller and Rogerson, 1999a).
The cases in this paper are not artificial-
ly created negative scenarios, but sourced
from the experiences of usability engineers
in the field. Case studies have frequently
been employed to illustrate ethical princi-
ples and particularly to highlight conflicts
and prioritizations amongst those princi-
ples. Anderson et al. (1993) used cases to
explore the then newly adopted ACM
Code of Ethics. Similarly, Burmeister
(2000) used case studies to illustrate the
application of the ACS Code of Ethics to
professional practice.
The link between software engineering
and usability engineering has been estab-
lished previously (Dowell and Long, 1989;
Long, 1995; Colbert, Long and Dowell,
1995; Karat and Karat,1998). Karat and
Karat (1998) first extended this link into a
discussion of ethics by employing Human-
Computer Interaction (HCI) case studies
to illustrate the relevance to HCI of various
aspects of the ethical codes of 30 comput-
Info, Comm & Ethics in Society (2003) 1: 119–132
©2003 Troubador Publishing Ltd.
KKEEYYWWOORRDDSS
Usability testing
Usability
engineering
Professionalism
Oliver K. Burmeister
Swinburne Computer-Human Interaction Laboratory, School of Information Technology,
Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Email: oburmeister@it.swin.edu.au
John Weckert
Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University, Australia
Email: jweckert@csu.edu.au
CCOOVVEERRAAGGEE
It has been argued that it is in the best interests of IT professionals, to adopt and enforce professional codes
in the work place. But there is no code for usability engineers, unless one accepts that it is a branch of soft-
ware engineering. The new joint ACM/IEEE-CS Software Engineering Code of Ethics is applied to
actual usability cases. This enables usability engineers to interpret this code in their profession. This is
achieved by utilizing four case studies both directly in terms of the ethical issues involved and in the light
of the code. Also examined are the short-comings of the code for the domain of usability engineering, and
suggestions are made for enhancements for future revisions of the code.
ABSTRACT
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