Talk:Universal usability

The creation of this page is a group project of Dr. Kent Norman's Spring semester 2006 course, Seminar in Human Performance Theory: Human/Computer Interaction, at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Comments by Kent Norman

Good start. Can you also support universal usability with other leaders in the field? Also, needs to refine the areas of usability and how to cut across differences among users (e.g., expertise, IQ, reading speed, typing speed, gender, language, etc.) Finally, the examples that you give are all hardware and ergonomics rather than the idea of multi-layer designs.

Coments by Douglas Chelson

Good description.

Whereas there is not likely to be an average user, is there not an average market that needs to be targeted? Economics will drive much of the development and the product will have to have an "average" user in mind, even with multiple layers.

The curb cut analogy is good, but I must add that each curb cut or ramp costs money. Who pays for the accessibility features? If the ramp is the only place a user can get off the sidewalk, won't most users feel confined by them? True universality would require multi-level and user programmable functions which would cost money, introduce glitches or bugs, and slow down operations. I would add something about trade-offs or cost of such systems and how most people react to them. Do people use the programmable functions or switch to different levels or do they just stick with what is presented?