A Walk-Up-and-Use Information System for the Sydney Olympics: A Case Study in User-Centered Design

The info information retrieval system was designed and developed for the XXVII Olympic Summer Games held in Sydney, Australia in September 2000. info provided journalistsandbroadcasterswith informationforplanningtheirdaysat thegamesandproducing their coverage of Olympic events. The user-centered design (UCD) team from the IBM Storage Systems Group was invited to work with the info system for the 2000 games and was able to do extensive UCD work, including working with journalists, broadcasters, and sports researchers from North America, Europe, and Asia. Throughout the development cycle the UCD team worked closely with the info programming team located in Madrid, Spain and with other teams in Sydney, Australia. Later, the UCD team joined a large cast of volunteers and professionals in providing support for info at the Sydney games. This opportunity allowed the UCD team to make observations and collect data ontheusabilityof thesystem,andthese indicate that infowasindeedeasytouseandthat customers were very satisfied with the system. info’s success was due to an extensive multidisciplinary team that included visual designers, human factors and human–computer interaction specialists, user research specialists, developers, marketers, IBM executives, and an active customer sponsor. The project demonstrates that application of UCD methods can improve product usability even when challenged with extremely dispersed teams and immovable deadlines.