When should a developer apply usability principles?
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Early in the SDLC
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After selling the product
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We don’t need usability!
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None of the above
Usability principles should be applied from the beginning of the Software Development Life Cycle - during requirements gathering, design, and prototyping. This prevents costly redesigns later and ensures user needs inform the product from the start. Applying usability after release or ignoring it entirely leads to poor user experiences and business losses.
Usability principles should be applied early in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) — ideally during requirements gathering and design — because retrofitting usability after implementation is far more costly and often requires significant rework. Early involvement (e.g., user research, wireframing, heuristic evaluation) lets teams catch usability issues before code is written. Waiting until 'after selling the product' means usability problems reach real users and damage the product's reputation, which defeats the purpose. The dismissive 'we don't need usability' option is simply an anti-pattern, and 'none of the above' ignores the well-established best practice of early usability integration.