Historically, usability evaluation methods (UEMs) have been evaluated on their
capability for problem identification. However, the relevance of this approach has been
questioned for applied usability work. To investigate alternative explanations of what is
important for method use a grounded theory of usability practitioners was developed (9
interviews from the website domain and 13 in the safety-critical domain). The analysis
proceeded in bottom-up and top-down stages. The bottom-up stages produced insight
from the data in an exploratory and inductive manner. This highlighted the importance
of contextual factors and the need for system descriptions: UEM adoption and
adaptation cannot be fully understood devoid of context. The top-down stages used
Distributed Cognition and Resilience Engineering conceptual frameworks as leverage
for exploring the data in a deductive manner. These were chosen for their functional
descriptions of systems. To illustrate the importance of context we describe three
models: 1) where previous research has highlighted the downstream utility of UEMs we
expand the metaphor to consider the landscape through which the stream flows, where
the landscape represents the project’s context; 2) where information propagation and
transformation in a project is influenced by social, information flow, artefact, physical
and evolutionary factors; and 3) where the functional couplings between parts of the
system of usability practice can be monitored and managed to positively resonate with
each other, thereby improving the performance of the system overall. The concept of
‘Positive Resonance’ is introduced to describe how practitioners adapt to the context to
maximise their impact under constrained resources. The functional couplings are
described in a functional resonance model of HCI practice. This model is validated by
interviewees and other practitioners outside of the study. This research shows that
problem identification is limited for valuing UEMs. Instead, functional couplings of
UEMs should be considered to improve system performance, which influence UEM
adoption and adaptation in practice