1. Human(e) machine interaction?
A reflection on the
development of products
Lucienne Blessing
Engineering Design and Methodology
University of Luxembourg
21 avril 2009
Product development is all about prediction
A process, that starts with and idea or need and ends with a complete
product description, thinking ahead into all life phases.
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Truly new things only come into existence in the product development
process: what no one has seen, known or thought of, because it did not
exist, is generated here, through mental effort, for the first time. Leyer

2. View on product developers
„conservative and insufficiently concerned
about the environment, disconnected from
community and social impact of their decisions“
product-oriented user development
Product development and user
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Up till now
 Taking the user into account: market prediction analysis of user needs
prediction, needs,
no concrete guidelines on how to do this
 User orientation: many methods and guidelines for dealing with user
requirements and for usability testing
 Change from seller to buyer market: competitiveness increasingly based
on product quality as perceived by the user users are becoming more
user,
active and demanding
.
Importance has been identified, but is user-centred sufficient?

3. What are the problems?
t
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Di l
Time and collaboration gap
 Time between needs analysis, testing and use can be large
 Transformation from the voice of the customer into technical requirements is
not effective.
 Usability tests expensive, relatively late and not always sufficiently
informative.
informative
Knowledge and understanding gap
 Designer tries to empathise and to understand, but is hardly in contact with
the user and/or is not a user his or herself
Knowledge and understanding of users
Focus mainly on primary users, less on
 Secondary users: additional users, involved during the product‘s life
 Tertiary users: persons that are influenced by the product, unintentionally,
now or in the future
 Other stakeholders: all people having an interest in the product within or
product,
outside the company
Diversity of users is not considered:
 Knowledge and experience
 Physical ability
y y
 Culture
 Age
 Gender
Information is lacking

4. Age
Special devices for the elderly?
 Danger of “over-accommodation”
g
 Parallel technology, increasing dependence on
the product
 Low acceptance by elderly people (S h h 2005)
L t b ld l l (Schuh
 Often inflexible
 Often deficit oriented
deficit-oriented
Gender: seat belt clip

5. Information determines solution
Dynamic Concept
Adaptive to
 the user (user models): p
( ) passive or active, within one modality or
, y
through different modalities
 different users, i.e. user perspectives:
 allow f i
ll for increasing competence or maintaining competence
i t i t i i t
 context
 intention
Dynamic user models, adaptive customised interfaces, raising
issues of acceptance (and product liability)
Do we know our users well enough?

6. Everyday technology
Challenges regarding user, process and context
 Users difficult to define (large variety)
 No control over operation
 No control over context
 User oft customer (functionality is not the only argument)
 Strongly increased functionality (no simple products)
 Product use often assumes some experience
 User not or hardly trained ( Manual? What manual?“)
(„Manual? manual? )
 Product understanding might be limited
 Safety risks caused by wrong operation or panik reactions
Basic design principles: simplicity, clarity and safety
Usability aims:
EN ISO 9241-11 Ergonomic requirements f office work with
SO for ff
visual display terminals (VDTs) - Part 11: Guidance on usability
 Effectiveness
Relates to the goals ( sub-goals) of the user to the accuracy and
g (or g ) y
completeness with which the goals can be achieved.
 Efficiency
Efficiency relates the level of effectiveness to the expenditure of
resources.
 Satisfaction
Satisfaction relates to the lack of discomfort experienced and to the
extent of users’ attitudes towards the use of the product
users

7. Dialogue principles
Ergonomics of human-system interaction –
EN ISO 9241-11 Part 110: Dialogue principles
(term “software” replaced by “product”)
1.
1 A product is for solving tasks
2. A product must speak the language of users
3. Users should be in control of the product
p
4. The product should present familiar things in a familiar manner
5. Users have a right to err
6. Users are different
7. A product should qualify
Usability and Intuitiveness
Everyone wants to have
„intuitive“ User Interfaces.
No-one knows exactly
what it means.
Everyone has them.

8. Intuitive interface?
„Intuitive interface designed
to make searching fast and
easy“
http://www.hurricanesoft.com/hsearch.jsp
Design for Intuitivity
„Intuitive interface allows end users to
use without help“
http://www.desktopdarkroom.com/upcr10l.html
Intuitive use
the extent to which a product can be used
by subconsciously applying prior knowledge,
resulting in an effective and satisfying interaction
using a minimum of cognitive resources.
Hurtienne

9. Intuitiveness and image schemata
BAD GOOD
GOOD BAD
Hurtienne
Non-intuitive Interaction
Interaction Problem
System
User
Task
Content Problem

10. Intuitive Interaction
System
User
A fit between user,
task and system
that enables users
to fulfill their tasks
effectively,
efficiently and to
y
their satisfaction
Task
Content Problem
What about satisfaction?
Survey of 1255 British PC Users
PC-Users
 almost a quarter of respondents said
they had to disrupt their work at least
once a day because of a computer
problem
 half of them complaint about time loss
because of crashes and system errors
 two fifth criticised computer jargon in
manuals and help texts
 Users frequently reacted with
„swearing, hitti or pulling th plug t
i hitting lli the l to
intractable information technology“ at
the work place
Knauer (2000)
K (2000):

11. What is satisfaction?
Who is satisfied?
„And thanks to the
electronic surveillance
we only need a home
helper every half year
to adjust the generator“
generator

12. Is that all there is?
Usability
 takes into account effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a
specified context of use. ISO 9241 part 11
 in line with a user-centred design approach
 in practice heavily focused on task fulfillment and objective
practice,
performance data
emotional involvement of the user has to be taken into account.
User experience
 takes into account non-instrumental qualities of a system
q y
 and its emotional responses by the user
Conceptual User Experience Lifecycle Model
ContinUE [continuous user experience] model, illustrating the
sequential phases of a user experience lifecycle and the
associated aspects of appraisal forming
appraisal-forming
Pohlmeyer, Hecht, Blessing, 2009

13. New ISO standard on user experience
User experience incorporates
 “all aspects of the user’s experience when interacting with the product,
service, environment or f ili I i a consequence of the presentation,
i i facility. It is f h i
functionality, system performance, interactive behaviour, and assistive
capabilities of the interactive system. It includes all aspects of usability
and d i bilit of a product, system or service from the user’s
d desirability f d t t i f th ’
perspective’.
ISO CD 9241-210 Ergonomics of human-system interaction - Part 210: Human-centred
design process for interactive systems. ISO, 2008
“Designing satisfying products and motivating potential users to interact
with them is something different than the mere attempt to avoid a
dissatisfying solution. Thi i already k
di ti f i l ti This is l d known f from ergonomics where
i h
discomforting features are generally independent from comforting
features.”
Pohlmeyer, Hecht, Blessing,
Pohlmeyer Hecht Blessing 2009
Emotional design
?
usability f t
bilit factors determine whether a device can b used
d t i h th d i be d
emotional factors determine whether a device will be used
adapted from Forlizzi et al., 2001
“Emotions must be generated by a product itself, not simply tacked
on through advertising. People are willing to pay more for products
with emotionally rich features.” Boatwright and Cagan, 2010

14. User involvement
User
User-centred design:
 No direct communication between user and
product developer
 User involvement only during phases of Marketing
on
market analysis and prototyping
Evaluatio
 Already shaped product limits user
imagination

E
User i not i
U is t involved i solution fi di
l d in l ti finding Product
P d t
process Developer
Product
User integration
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A systematic procedure for integration of all users throughout the
development process is necessary
„User were more often involved and invested more resources in the
development of successful products, than of products that did not
lead to market success.“

15. In summary
 User centred design is necessary but not sufficient
 User diversity and user experiences have to be taken into account
 Intuitiveness is key to usability and safety
 User integration is required to provide the necessary information
g q p y
Considerable research and development of methods is necessary.
But until then ……
from: www. Dilbert.com