van Kuijk Jasper, van Driel Liesbeth, van Eijk Daan
Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, The Netherlands.
Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, The Netherlands.
Appl Ergon. 2015 Mar;47:308-23. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2014.10.007. Epub 2014 Nov 21.
This study explored how usability was dealt with in four product development organizations active in different sectors: high-end automotive, professional printers and copiers, office coffee makers and fast moving consumer goods. The primary differentiators of the selected cases were whether they were targeting businesses or consumers and the degree of product complexity. Interviews with 19 product development practitioners were conducted, focussing on three topics: 1) the product development process and the integration of user involvement, 2) multidisciplinary teamwork, and 3) organizational attitude towards usability. Based on the interviews, context descriptions of the companies were created and barriers and enablers for usability were identified. To verify the findings and to discuss remaining issues a feedback workshop was held in which the primary contact from each company participated. The results indicate that differences in product-market combination lead to differences in organizational attitude towards usability. The prioritization of usability in an organization seems to be influenced by the degree of product complexity (complex products are more prone to suffer from usability issues) and whether developers think that usability is a purchase consideration for their clients. The product-market combination a company targets also affects the methods for user-centred design that a company can apply and that are relevant. What methods for user-centred design are used also seems to be influenced by the attitude towards usability: if usability is considered more important, methods that require more resources can be applied.
本研究探讨了活跃于不同行业的四个产品开发组织（高端汽车、专业打印机和复印机、办公室咖啡机以及快速消费品）是如何处理可用性问题的。所选案例的主要区别在于它们的目标是企业还是消费者以及产品的复杂程度。对19名产品开发从业者进行了访谈，重点围绕三个主题：1）产品开发流程及用户参与的整合，2）多学科团队合作，以及3）组织对可用性的态度。基于访谈内容，创建了各公司的背景描述，并确定了可用性的障碍和促成因素。为了验证研究结果并讨论遗留问题，举办了一次反馈研讨会，每家公司的主要联系人都参加了。结果表明，产品 - 市场组合的差异导致组织对可用性的态度存在差异。组织中可用性的优先级似乎受到产品复杂程度（复杂产品更容易出现可用性问题）以及开发者是否认为可用性是客户购买时的考虑因素的影响。公司所针对的产品 - 市场组合也会影响公司能够应用且相关的以用户为中心的设计方法。所使用的以用户为中心的设计方法似乎也受到对可用性态度的影响：如果认为可用性更重要，就可以应用需要更多资源的方法。
