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Emerging and future usability challenges:
designing user experiences and user communities
Sim D'Hertefelt,
2 February 2000
Our hypothesis is that the notion
of the usability of interactive systems depends on
the social context in which interactive systems are used. Our
notion of usability has only partially kept pace with the new
usability challenges that emerge from the changing context of
use. Interaction architects will have to become experts in human-human
interaction in order to tackle the future challenge of designing
successful user communities.
The hypothesis
What makes an interactive system useful
and usable is not a fixed thing. Usability experts say that
what's usable "depends on the users of the interactive
system", a phrase that does not make them very popular
at times. Although usability experts have a point, we also see
changes in the notion of usability over time. Our hypothesis
is that the notion of the usability of interactive systems
depends on the social context in which interactive systems are
used.
The social context, in which interactive
systems are used, has changed considerably over the last 20
years. The rapid adoption and widespread application of interactive
technologies changes the human challenge of making them usable.
But our notion of usability has only partially kept
pace with the new usability challenges that emerge from the
changing context of use.
This article aims at identifying emerging
and future usability challenges. Because we will have to adapt
our notion of usability to these challenges in order to keep
designing successful interactive systems in the future.
We identify the following usability
challenges:
- The traditional usability challenge: designing for user
performance
- The emerging usability challenge: designing the user experience
- The future usability challenge: designing user communities
The traditional usability challenge:
designing for user performance
The traditional notion of usability
is aimed at optimizing user performance, or:
- Ease and efficiency of use
- Ease of learning
This notion of usability emerged when
the social context of computer use changed from a small group
of highly technical users who designed themselves the interactive
systems they used, to a larger group of non-technical employees
who were forced to use computers to execute specialized
work-related tasks in a more efficient way.
Usability as user performance became
a worthwhile investment for employers because it reduced labor
costs and yielded returns that were not possible before.
Not surprisingly, the methods that
were developed in this context were referred to as the usability
engineering method. User performance is an
engineering problem: it is reasonably objective, quantifiable
and measurable (task execution time) and as a consequence it
can be controlled and optimized using standardized techniques.
The emerging usability challenge:
designing the user experience
Usability aimed at user performance
continued to be the major concern in human factors when the
social context of use changed drastically. From specialized
production tools in the context of work and in an employer-employee
relationship, interactive systems became entertainment boxes
and a means to achieve personal goals in a home and leisure
context. In addition, interactive systems started to pervade
our everyday life through cars, microwaves, video recorders,
multimedia kiosks, ticket dispensers, coffee machines, etc.
A new notion of usability is currently
emerging that tackles the challenges of this context of use:
designing the user experience. Usability as user experience
usually answers two different though related problems:
- The strategic problem of making interactive systems
useful for users
- The psychological problem of making interactive
systems accepted by users
When users are not forced to use interactive
systems in a work context but choose to use them to achieve
personal goals, excellent user performance is not enough. These
interactive systems have to satisfy an existing user need (be
useful) and they have to be fun and pleasant to use (user acceptance).
And because the competition on internet is only a click away,
companies are now willing to invest in meeting these strategic
and psychological challenges.
Usability as user performance and
usability as user experience are two very different things.
You need different methods to test the user performance of an
interactive system and the user experience of an interactive
system. The article Observation
methods and tips for usability testing explains some of
these differences.
User performance, of course, will
continue to be an important aspect of usability. But usability
methods will have to be adapted and extended to design optimal
user experiences.
The future usability challenge: designing
user communities
We speculate that the near future
will show the emergence of a new usability challenge: the challenge
of designing user communities. Designing user communities
is a sociological problem. To tackle this problem,
we will need to answer questions like:
- What makes people identify with a community, what makes
them feel they belong to a virtual community?
- What makes people participate in a virtual community?
- What are the concepts and methods we can use to understand
human behavior in virtual communities?
- What are the guidelines we should take into account to
design successful virtual communities?
We think the notion of usability,
as designing user communities, will appear due to the current
change in the social context in which interactive systems are
used. This social context is characterized by an emergence of
new kinds of organizations, business models, social groups and
social interaction on internet on the one hand and an erosion
of traditional communities on the other.
An example. Amazon.com's on-line customer
reviews are only the beginning of increased interaction between
customers. From research for a major European airline we learned
that people decide on their holiday destinations mainly by talking
to friends and family. The first airline that successfully translates
this social interaction to the web will win the on-line battle
in this industry.
The notions of usability as user performance
and as user experience are too preoccupied with the individual
user to catch the challenge of designing successful user communities.
Interaction architects will not only have to be experts in Human-Computer
Interaction but in Human-Human Interaction as well to tackle
this challenge.
Read more about Sim's current activities: Copywriting by Kwintessens | Information architecture by Kwintessens (in Dutch)
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