Context Special: Not just Task, but Room Temperature

Jennifer Rode has just left Britain behind after more two years of English everyday life to return to America. She says that her paper "Appliances for Whom? Considering Place", written at the University of California, Irvine, USA, and presented at 3AD (see UN story: A Shift of Focus to Context), was inspired in part by the experience of immersion in the two cultures and having the differences between them emerge in unexpected ways.

As noted, the 3AD conference had turned its attention from product design issues to a greater consideration of the social or organisational context in which the designs are used. With a paper that devoted its whole theme to the differences between contexts of use across different cultures, Rode considered the home as represented in American product design and the limitations of this idea of one model for all.

Citing research she participated in while still based in England, she told of basic differences in how households operate between the two countries that stopped a breadmaker in its tracks. Bread makes overnight in the USA because rooms are kept warm at night. In the UK, the ambient temperature at night, when heating is turned down or off, is too low to activate the yeast. So, even these two cultures perceived to be close in their digital design needs are widely different when domestic products are considered.

Moving from temperature, she looked at the space assumptions that inform the design of vacuum cleaner robots – that there will be big rooms with widely-spread furniture – and wireless networks – that houses are usually detached and in their own grounds. Again, Britain's density made a good contrast, where small rooms, terraced houses and multiple flats foiled designers' intentions. In the case of wireless networks, data security issues about networks which spread outside one household's domain are made apparent in a way that is unlikely to happen in North America.

Rode went on to look at average number of people per dwelling, number of rooms per household, and number of rooms per person for a good cross section of the world and finds the USA at the spacious end of all the graphs.

'Rather than looking at homes in general, we should look more carefully at the culturally specific features of the home,' she argued. 'We should include statistical data on infrastructure, family structure and house size when publishing our work to make our data more understandable and transferable.'

When challenged that it was only the wealthy in other parts of the world that could afford luxury goods of the kind being described and that their homes shared characteristics, Rode was unmoved. In addition to tackling the basis of the assertion, she drew attention to the other factors that distinguish homes in many parts of the world, such as weather conditions and power cuts that affect wealthy and poor alike.

Poor Shopping Basket Usability will hinder Christmas Rush
Source: UN, 20 November 2008
 
A new study from eDigitalResearch identifies customer service and online shopping basket usability as the two key areas where online retailers need to improve.

Future Phones to Read Your Voice, Gestures
Source: Wired, 19 November 2008
 
Five years from now, it is likely that the mobile phone you will be holding will be a smooth, sleek brick — a piece of metal and plastic with a few grooves in it and little more.

Why Digital Research is important in tough Financial Times
Source: Financial Times, 18 November 2008
 
With the banking sector moving towards consolidation, it is crucial that customers are understood, reacted to and rewarded for their loyalty.

Get Ready for 'Ergobamanomics'
Source: AssemblyBlog via ergonomics in the news , 17 November 2008
 
Is President Elect, Barack Obama, a secret ergonomics and usability enthusiast?

The Most Dreaded Keyword Phrase
Source: SearchEngineLand, 15 November 2008
 
In website usability, one of the hardest obstacles to overcome is the mentality of “This is what I would do.”

User Experience Standards Missing from Web 2.0 Designs
Source: UN, 14 November 2008
 
Usability professionals should be more involved with the development of Web 2.0 tools.

New technology showcased at World Usability Day
Source: User Vision, 13 November 2008
 
Today is World Usability Day!

Review: 16 User Interface Prototyping Tools
Source: Dexo Design, 12 November 2008
 
People constantly ask me what the best prototyping or mockup tool is, so I decided to do a review of all the tools I’m aware of.

Radio 4's PM show announces Winner of 'Show Us a Better Way'
Source: BBC, 11 November 2008
 
Ever been frustrated that you can't find out something that ought to be easy to find? Ever been baffled by league tables or 'performance indicators'?

Cisco Systems extends Product Usability Research
Source: Catalyst Resources, 10 November 2008
 
Cisco is conducting extensive usability research with Catalyst Resources, into complex new technologies.