Usability, Experience and Context-of-Use

In our daily life too often we encounter products
that are difficult to use. For example, selecting
different options of the washing machine at home, or
using the different settings of the photocopy
machine at the office. This book postulates that
people s knowledge of products usage is prompted by
their experiences in particular contexts. It
describes an empirical study that investigates how
human experience and the context of products use
influence the way people understand everyday
products. This study provides greater detail about
the differences between designers and users
concepts of a product s usage, and explains the
connection between experience, context-of-use and
product usability. It demonstrates the relevance of
these principles to the initial stages of the design
of product usability, and proposes a conceptual tool
to make the new knowledge accessible during a design
process. By informing designers about specific
causal-relationships between experience, context-of-
use and product usability, this study hopes to
contribute to the design of more usable products.

Autorentext
Dr Marianella Chamorro-Koc is a Lecturer in Industrial Design at Queensland University of Technology (Australia). She holds a M.A. from Ohio State University (U.S.A), and a B.A. from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru (Peru). Her research interests are in the areas of product design, human-centred design, and product usability.

Klappentext
In our daily life too often we encounter products that are difficult to use. For example, selecting different options of the washing machine at home, or using the different settings of the photocopy machine at the office. This book postulates that people's knowledge of products' usage is prompted by their experiences in particular contexts. It describes an empirical study that investigates how human experience and the context of products use influence the way people understand everyday products. This study provides greater detail about the differences between designers and users' concepts of a product's usage, and explains the connection between experience, context-of-use and product usability. It demonstrates the relevance of these principles to the initial stages of the design of product usability, and proposes a conceptual tool to make the new knowledge accessible during a design process. By informing designers about specific causal-relationships between experience, context-of- use and product usability, this study hopes to contribute to the design of more usable products.