Abstract
This paper reports on an ongoing empirical study that explores context of use and user’s experience as relevant issues for the design of product usability. Its experimental approach focuses on investigating the nature of the differences between the designers’ and the users’ concept formulation about everyday artefacts in regard to their context of use. Visual representation of artefacts and verbal reports were used to elicit such information from users and designers during the experiment. Initial outcomes indicate that the main difference between the user’s and designer’s concepts and knowledge is mostly due to their individual experience within the context that extends or limits their understanding of that artefact; outcomes suggest that this issue affects not only the user’s perception of an artefact’s use but also the designer’s views of what are the relevant usability issues.
Keywords
context of use, user experience, product usability, knowledge representation, visual thinking
Citation
Chamorro-Koc, M., Popovic, V., and Emmison, M. (2004) Context of Use and User's Experience: An Exploratory Study in the Product Design Domain., in Redmond, J., Durling, D. and de Bono, A (eds.), Futureground - DRS International Conference 2004, 17-21 November, Melbourne, Australia. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2004/researchpapers/157
Context of Use and User's Experience: An Exploratory Study in the Product Design Domain.
This paper reports on an ongoing empirical study that explores context of use and user’s experience as relevant issues for the design of product usability. Its experimental approach focuses on investigating the nature of the differences between the designers’ and the users’ concept formulation about everyday artefacts in regard to their context of use. Visual representation of artefacts and verbal reports were used to elicit such information from users and designers during the experiment. Initial outcomes indicate that the main difference between the user’s and designer’s concepts and knowledge is mostly due to their individual experience within the context that extends or limits their understanding of that artefact; outcomes suggest that this issue affects not only the user’s perception of an artefact’s use but also the designer’s views of what are the relevant usability issues.