Acknowedgements
Thanks for contributions from:
Jonathan Earthy, Susan Harker, Toshihiro Komiyama, Masaki Korusu, Zhengjie Liu, Carl Myhill, Elizabeth Rosenzweig, Tom Tullis.
Dianne Murray, April 2018
From the mid-1980s Nigel was involved with the development of international standards as a national expert for the UK in both Systems and software engineering, and Ergonomics becoming the founding convenor of ISO TC159/SC4/WG11 Ease of operation of everyday products in 2010.
He contributed to the development of the following standards for ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7/WG6:
ISO/IEC 9126-1:2001 Software engineering - Product quality - Part 1: Quality model
ISO/IEC 9126-4:2004 Software engineering - Product quality - Part 4: Quality in use metrics
ISO/IEC 14598-1:1999 Information technology - Software product evaluation - Part 1: General overview
ISO/IEC 25010:2011 Systems and software engineering - Systems and software Quality Requirements and Evaluation (SQuaRE) - System and software quality models
ISO/IEC 25022:2016 Systems and software engineering - Systems and software quality requirements and evaluation (SQuaRE) - Measurement of quality in use.
For Ergonomics he led the projects to develop:
ISO 9241-11:1998 Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs) - Guidance on usability;
ISO 20282-1:2006 Ease of operation of everyday products - Design requirements for context of use and user characteristics;
ISO/TS 20282-2:2013 Usability of consumer products and products for public use — Summative test method;
ISO/IEC 25063:2014 Systems and software engineering - Systems and software product Quality Requirements and Evaluation (SQuaRE) - Common industry Format for Usability: Context of use description;
ISO 9241-11:2018 Ergonomics of human-system interaction — Usability: Definitions and concepts;
ISO 9241-230 Ergonomics of human system interaction — Human-centred design and evaluation methods (in progress).
Nigel also made invaluable contributions on the editorial teams of many other Ergonomics standards, including:
IEC 62508:2010 Guidance on Human Aspects of Dependability;
ISO 9241-220 Ergonomics of human–system interaction – Processes for enabling, executing and assessing human-centred design within organizations (in progress).
In addition to assigned responsibilities Nigel Bevan was diligent, thorough and perceptive in commenting on standards on behalf of both the UK and UXPA. His tireless work in this area without doubt improved very many standards for both ergonomics and software.
Nigel Bevan was born on 18th July 1946 in Essex but lived in London for the major part of his life. He died suddenly and unexpectedly in Sarawak, Malaysia on 26th March 2108. He leaves behind a wife, Anne, two adult children, Nikki and Dave, and three grandchildren.
He obtained two first academic degrees, one in Physics from Imperial College, London and a later degree in Psychology from Birkbeck College, University of London. He carried out his Ph.D work in standards for keyboard and keypad layouts under the direction of Professor Brian Shackel at Loughborough University. This was the work of which he was most proud, impacting on the design of keypad layouts in use today.
He joined the National Physical Laboratory (NPL – the UK's National Measurement Institute) in Teddington in 1973 and remained there for 25 years, first as a member then as Head of the HCI Group in the Division of Information Technology and Computing (DITC). He worked initially with Dr. Chris Evans on physical interfaces for the disabled then on the doctor-patient medical interviewing application called MICKIE (which was an exhibit in the UK Science Museum during the 1980s). An initiative in Authoring Systems came next with the creation of a successful software package entitled MICROTEXT using the then novel technology of videodiscs. At that time he was also member of BLEND, an pioneering electronic messaging and online journal initiated by Professor Shackel for the British Library.
He became Head of the Usability Section for a number of years after managing Alvey and European Commission funded projects (notably “MUSiC” and “UsabilityNet”). As a result of his position as a Civil Servant he had a post for a year as an assistant to the UK Chief Scientist.
He went on to become Research Manager at Serco Usability Services, an NPL spinoff company until the early 2000s and was involved in European Commission Framework Programme projects in Usability. He then became a successful professional Usability Consultant some 15 years or so years ago (http://www.nigelbevan.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelbevan/), carrying out work for a number of prominent institutions.
Nigel was an important contributor to national and international standards through his involvement with the International Standards Organisation (ISO) from early in his career until the present day. He specialised in the standardisation process for the developing fields of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Usability and contributed to the 1999 ISO 13407 standard, “Human-centred design processes for interactive systems”. This has now been superseded by ISO 9241-210:2010, “Ergonomics of human-system interaction -- Part 210: Human-centred design for interactive systems” to which he also contributed. He was in addition responsible for developing the new Common Industry Format (CIF) standard for usability requirements. His standards work extended to the “Quality in use” and CIFs standards from JTC1.
He was a member of the TC13 (on Human-Machine Interaction) committee of the International Federation of Information Processing societies (IFIP) and was involved in the creation of the first of the ongoing INTERACT conferences in 1984. In the 1990s the Usability Forum with which he was involved made a significant difference in industrial engagement for the practice of usability.
He was a prime mover in the creation of the British HCI Group under the aegis of the British Computer Society (BCS HCI) and was its first Chair He was also a Fellow of the BCS and the British Psychology Society. He was a member the Association for Computing Machines Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI) and the Usability Professionals Association International (UXPA). During his extensive time of involvement with UXPA he was Director of Professional Development and helped initiate World Usability Day as an annual international event. In recent years he was involved in the UXPA Usability Body of Knowledge. As an acknowledgement of such work, he was presented with the UXPA President’s Award.
Nigel was also a member of the US National Academies Committee on Human-System Design Support and a contributor to the Dagstuhl Workshop, “Demarcating User Experience”, the discussion there being summarised as an influential UX White Paper in 2011.
His latest interest was in Chinese and Japanese HCI and Usability initiatives and, more recently, and in the Kanji system of communication.. In China he was instrumental in setting up the Sino-European Usability Center in 2000 as the first usability engineering institution in China stemming from the UsabilityNet EU Fifth Framework Program project which he led. This contributed to the start and dissemination of user experience practice in China.
In Japan he provided strong support for emerging Usability and UX activity in that country. He visited Japan many times, attending ISO-related meetings and giving lectures in Tokyo. He became involved in the Kansei community and conferences and recently organised a workshop, which should have been the kick-off of international Kansei issues specialising in the concept of satisfaction. He was in returning from the Kansai KEEP 2018 conference when he had his accident.
He leaves as a legacy an impressive body of work, notably in national and internal computing standards, which is highlighted below. More importantly, he leaves behind many friends who mourn his passing.
Nigel Bevan was a researcher and practitioner in the academic field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and an expert consultant and activist for the theory and practice of Usability. He was well-known in the international HCI and UX communities and contributed to many initiatives in both areas. He was an author of many academic papers and was an active and able reviewer for journals and professional initiatives.
He was a respected member of the research community and had an influence on numerous people, acting as a mentor to many. He was knowledgeable, a good conversationalist, always interested in talking to colleagues old and new and in exciting challenges. He was fascinated by people but also loved good food and wine, seeing new sights, discovering new cultures and trying out new gadgets.
Nigel’s passion, in addition to his work, was in hiking, walking and climbing, usually in challenging circumstances. He travelled widely across the globe for his work and always added some adventurous expedition in his visits to faraway places.
He died whilst engaged in a favourite activity, hiking a famous trail, in the Mulu National Park Sarawak, Malaysia. He fell, injuring his head while scaling the Pinnacles with a small group.
