Media: Frontend looks at Integrated Product Design

It's called 'Usability Issues in Product Design', but it is really a long look at how interface design should be integrated with its hardware and how often this is not the case.

Author Frank Long unsurprisingly claims that the real loser in this fragmented approach is the user. 'By not considering all elements of the interface together, the user interaction model becomes disjointed and products become difficult to use. The household VCR is a prime example of this approach. On an individual basis, all of the elements of the product interface are well designed, but when they come together the user interaction model fails, preventing most users from accessing even the basic product functionality (like setting it to record!). A unified task-based approach is what is required and as technology advances this need becomes more critical than ever.'

He also gives the example of interactive TV: 'The interface is still rendered by a form of HTML and general web-browser rules of interaction apply. It still appears on a screen, but now that screen is at the far side of the living room - effecting readability and impacting on the amount of information available on screen. Living room furniture has made the use of a keyboard cumbersome, and likewise the mouse is replaced by a remote control with cursor keys, impacting on user navigation.'

Long suggests that the end result is not just a different user environment from the Web but also a completely different user idiom.

Associated Link: Frontend: Usability Issues in Product Design

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