In October of 1997, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) initiated an effort to increase the visibility of software usability, the Industry USability Reporting (IUSR) Project. Cooperating in the IUSR project are prominent suppliers of software and representatives from large consumer organizations. The IUSR project is a product of the Visualization and Usability Group, Information Access Division, of the Information Technology Laboratory.