1st Edition

Pleasure With Products Beyond Usability

Edited By William S. Green, Patrick W. Jordan Copyright 2002

    The last five years have seen a major paradigm shift in the role of human factors in product design. Previously this was seen as pertaining almost exclusively to product usability, but new recognition is being given to "pleasure-based" human factors. This emphasizes the holistic nature of the experience of person-product interaction. While traditional human factors approaches tended to characterize the user in terms of his or her physical or cognitive processing capabilities, new human factors approaches are concerned with wider lifestyle issues. The quality of a design is judged not only on its fit with a person's cognitive and physical abilities but also depends on how it fits the person's lifestyle and self image -- his hopes, dreams, values, and aspirations. Under the new paradigm, human factors specialists are concerned not only with the interaction design of products, but also with the product's sensorial and aesthetic qualities.
    Usability may once have been a seen as an added bonus, but consumers now tend to expect a product to be usable and are disappointed if they have difficulties in use. If human factors specialists are to continue to add value to a product, then their contribution must extend beyond traditional usability issues to capture the essence of what makes a product a real joy to use. This book gives an overview of the state-of-the-art in human factors approaches, consisting of specially invited contributions from leading practitioners in both industry and academia.

    Introduction. Pleasure with Products: Beyond Usability 'Human Factors and Design'. Beauty in Usability: Forget Ease of Use. The Personalities of Products. Beyond Usability, Computer Playfulness. The Basis of Product Emotions. Product Appearance and Consumer Pleasure. Product Design for Consumer Taste. Pleasure versus Efficiency in User Interfaces: Towards an Involvement Framework. The Scenario of Sensory Encounter: Cultural Factors in Sensory-Aesthetic Experience. Emergence of Pleasure: Communities of Interest and New Luxury Products. Carrying the Pleasure of Books into the Design of the Electronic Book. Difficulties and Pleasure? Envisioning Future Needs: from Pragmatics to Pleasure. Designing Experience: Whether to Measure Pleasure or Just Tune In? Using Video Ethnography to Inform and Inspire User Centered Design. Linking Product Properties to Pleasure. The Sensorial Quality Assessment Method. Design Based on Kansei. Participative Image-based Research as a Basis for New Product Development. Emotional Responses to Virtual Prototypes in the Design Evaluation of a Product Design. Understanding Attributes that Contribute to Pleasure in Product Use. Measuring Experience of Interactive Characters. Understanding People and Pleasure-Based Human Factors. Mapping the User-Product-Relationship (in Product Design). Cooking Up Pleasurable Products: Understanding Designers. Prolonging the Pleasure. Comfort and Pleasure. Collecting Stories on User Experiences to Inspire Design - A Pilot. Usability Perception. Applying Evaluation Methods to Future Digital TV Services. Activity and Designing Pleasurable Interaction with Everyday Artifacts. Conclusion. Index.

    Biography

    William S. Green, Patrick W. Jordan