PUBLIC SECTOR ICT MANAGEMENT REVIEW 12 IDYAWATI HUSSEIN Email: idyawati@gmail.com ESMADI ABU BIN ABU SEMAN School of Informatics Science Universiti Malaysia Sabah 87000 Labuan F.T. MURNI MAHMUD Email: murni@iiu.edu.my Kulliyyah of Information and Communication Technology International Islamic University Malaysia Jalan Gombak 53100 Kuala Lumpur BARRIERS AND DRIVERS OF HUMAN-CENTERED ICT DESIGN: THE MISSING ELEMENTS IN MALAYSIA ABSTRACT Given the widely recognised importance of information and communication technology (ICT) for the successful government initiatives and business achievements; this study explored the perceptions of ICT-related oficials and major stakeholder’s group towards the barriers and drivers of human-centered technology development. The indings found that although Malaysia has successfully implemented ICT, issues of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) have not been distinct as they should be; there is a lack of study on the usability of ICT/multimedia applications and less emphasis on adoption of designing interactive systems to support people and for the people to enjoy. Findings of this study indicate that human-centered barriers are clustered around the existing traditional bureaucratic system. In fact, different challenges related to the traditional model of bureaucracy such as mindset, institutional and managerial processes are considered as heart of all other barriers which have building block human-centered design. Interestingly, incentives for modernising and reinventing the government by using ICT with the intention of building citizen-centric, transparent and accountable and eficient government are placed at the core of driving forces for moving towards human-centered activities. KEYWORDS: Human Computer Interaction (HCI), human centered, usability, Malaysian 1.0 INTRODUCTION Being human-centered is about thinking what people can provide rather than what the technology can provide, designing new ways to connect people with people, involving people in the design process and designing for diversity ([6] p.14). The main discipline contributing to being human-centered in designing is human-computer interaction (HCI). HCI and usability design have pragmatically been the focus of researchers and practitioners in developed countries during the early 1980s; evolving into a subject concerned with the design, evaluation, and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them ([1] p.6). However, there have been few studies on design of interaction between human and computer in developing countries [11].