References 14 Summary Products that display some type of human interaction acknowledge that human beings have a physical form. Our human form gives rise to design restrictions and limitations. Our physical forms differ considerably from one person to the next and our own physical form changes over time. As a consequence of our different physical forms we have different physical abilities. For example, we differ in our reach, our strength, our ability to grip and our ability to sustain effort. To draw a distinction 13 Products for markets Japanese car companies came to dominate in many countries in the 1980s, and this was in part attributable to their marketing research and emphasis on designing products for particular market segments. An example is the car firm Nissan, which researches national preferences for various car attributes in different countries. For instance, it is reputed to have provided its cars with softer suspensions in Germany, firmer steering in the UK, and noisier exhausts in Italy. There are other reasons 12.1.2 Focus groups A focus group is simply a group of people gathered together to discuss a particular issue. They have been used in all kinds of social and market research, including political policy making. In market research for product design, a focus group might be a group of purchasers of a particular product brought together to discuss their feelings and attitudes towards the product and rival products; or perhaps their general likes and dislikes about those types of products. The intention of the market 12.1.1 Survey questionnaires Questionnaires are lists of questions that enable information to be gathered efficiently from a relatively large number of respondents. Most questionnaires require a fixed type of response, such as a choice between available answers, or along a scale of response. For example, a product design questionnaire might suggest, ‘I found the product easy to use’ and provide a five-point scale of response from ‘agree strongly’ to ‘disagree strongly’. Or a question might be, ‘how often do 12.1 Gathering data In this section I will review some of the approaches and methods used by companies for identifying and exploiting marketing opportunities. All over the world, producer companies have increasingly learned to keep a careful watch on emerging consumer requirements and changing user needs and wishes. They have not only learned to listen to what consumers say, but to watch what they do. Techniques used in market research to gather consumers’ views on products include both quantitative meth 11.1 he four pleasures In consumerist societies, buying, using and displaying products has come to represent a certain type of pleasure. This pleasure principle has to be acknowledged in new product development and design. The designer Kenneth Grange has said that a guiding design principle for him is that a product should be ‘a pleasure to use’. The pleasures of using a product are derived from the perceived benefits it offers to the user. Can we be more explicit in planning product benefits that are ple 10 User research techniques: observing users This section introduces an alternative to basing user research on yourself. This is observation of experienced and inexperienced users either in experimental or natural situations. One way around the difficulties of basing research on oneself is to observe other people acting as users and to choose naive or different kinds of experienced users, depending on what information you want to gather. Begin by identifying those experienced users who will be able to provide you with releva 9.1.5 Immersion Click on the 'View document' link below to read Jordan on 'Immersion'. 9.1.4 Take a trip to the payphone Click on the 'View document' link below to read 'Take a trip to the payphone'. 9.1.3 Take the trip Third, set out and take the trip and record actions, impressions, ideas and thoughts.
9.1.2 Limits Second, decide the limits and the variations to the user trip or trips that you are going to take. It is usually a good idea to extend the trip into activities that both precede and succeed the immediate use of the product you are investigating since this may lead you into devising an improved, more integrated overall solution. Similarly, variations on a basic trip – different times of day, different weather conditions, different requirements – will probably bring to light a wider range o 9.1 User trip This section introduces a simple method of investigating product use. Even such simple methods can provide useful information to guide product redesign and new product development. The essential idea of user trips is simple: you just take a ‘trip’ through the whole process of using a particular product or system, making yourself a critical observant user. The only way to learn how to make these user trips is to try one or two for yourself. You will be surprised how much you fi 8.1.3 Affordance A third key design feature for usability is affordance – this more difficult concept is related to the functions that a product offers, or affords, to its users. Some affordances are real – for example a handle on a portable machine. Some are perceived affordances – these can be more relevant in computerised products, which have more complex and dynamic means of interaction with the user. For these products, it is important for the designer to help the user to perceive jus 8.1.2 Feedback A second important principle is providing feedback to the user – for example, when you press a button it moves and clicks, or you hear some other sound or you see a light to indicate the action has been registered by the machine. Here's another short video clip from Phillip Joe at IDEO, this time on feedback. 8.1.1 Visibility Recall that a key usability design feature identified by Donald Norman – from his analysis of using everyday objects such as doors – was visibility. An everyday object such as a door, or a control such as a button on a product should appear to be obvious about how it is used, and indeed it should perform that obvious function. For example, is it obvious how you insert a disc into a player? Is it obvious how you switch the machine on, adjust volume, and so on? 8.1 Making usable products This section reveals that many modern products need to usable by our minds as much as our bodies. Products need to be understandable, and present information and feedback in meaningful ways. A lot of ergonomics research is aimed at establishing guidelines, standards or rules that can be applied by designers in a variety of situations. Where this applies to the physical use of products, much of it is based on standard body measurements. These body measurements are known as anthropomet 7 Ergonomics and human factors This section discusses designing for human capabilities and limitations. It introduces the study of ergonomics which can offer general guidelines as well as specific suggestions for good, user-centred product design. Taking the user as the central point of reference for the design and evaluation of products is the approach encouraged by ergonomists. The field of ergonomics (also known as human factors engineering) is the systematic study of human capabilities, limitations and requ 6 Inclusive design This section reveals the importance of designing things to suit all potential users. Inclusive design (or universal design) means designing products so that they can be used easily by as many people as wish to do so. This may sound an obvious goal, but the fact is that many people – some estimates suggest as many as one-fifth of all adults – have difficulty carrying out ordinary tasks with everyday products. Many elderly and disabled people cannot carry out – certainly with 5 Why not design for the ‘average’ user This section explains why it can be misleading to design for an average user; a complete user population should be considered, and often it is more relevant to design for the smallest, tallest, weakest etc. Designing to include extreme users can also benefit the great majority of users. Even when user needs are being considered in design, it is still relatively easy for the designer to fall into the trap of designing for the average user. On the face of it, it seems a good idea to desig













