What is usability? Three basic definitions:
1. How "easy" something is to use
2. The discipline of building web sites that are "easy" to use
3. The measure of how a user interacts with a product or system
My favourite products are typically labour saving devices like my (new) washing machine, bread making machine, dishwasher. I also prefer my digital camera over my 20y/o SLR, I like my MP3 player and prefer Firefox to any other web browser around at the moment.
All of these things are relevant to my life, they meet a need, I am comfortable using them - in fact most of them I use with very little thought about it. Their usability is a very important factor in my preference for these things, if I had to solve the problem of how to use these products every time I wanted to use them they would lose their usefulness.
With many of the items the brand has very little significance - like my washing machine for instance, I might consider the brand as an indicator of quality and reliability but in the end it comes down to functionality and affordability. With this type of things that perform a specific, simple function I tend to take the usability of the thing for granted.
On the other hand complex things like the particular web browser I use, take time to develop a preference for. Each browser performs the same basic function in the same basic way (eg back/forward buttons); it is the experience-enhancing features which command user preference - and sometimes a fierce loyalty!
1 comment:
Other students have been posting about their mobile phones as one of their favourite things - I hate mobile phones! I rarely use mine, I leave it switched off most of the time, or else it is usually drained of power because I forget to recharge. Don't like the idea of being accessible any time, any place. Hubby thinks I'm mad.
Post a Comment