What is it, and how can you use it to improve your technology?
In developing technology, it can be easy to focus on the engineering of the product. That is, after all, one of the great challenges of developing a technology. However, for a technology or a product to truly be successful in the market, it needs to be something that customers will purchase – whether the customer is an individual, a family, or a company. For the customer to purchase it, it must meet usability needs like the following:
For users to really desire and use a technology, it must meet a need. The stronger the need, the higher their motivation to use the technology. A common mistake is to develop a technology with many use cases in mind, but not to focus on any of them. This can lead to a product that is supposed to be able to meet many needs, but in reality, has not been developed well enough to meet any of them well. Users become quickly frustrated with a product that has a low success rate, and they lose trust very quickly in the product and the company. This not only sabotages the product, but harms other future products from the company. Another pitfall is when companies focus on making a technology that solves a fascinating engineering problem, but does not meet a specific user need. Most users are not motivated to buy or use a technology until they understand how it will meet a specific need they care about.
The technology should work as intended, and seldom if ever create errors. If there are errors, they should be minimized and recoverable. For example, if a robot vacuum cleaner bunches up the corner of the rug, you can fix the corner. But if it pushes cat vomit all around the house, it adds extra work to the user compared to if they had not use the technology to begin with. If an error has minimal harm, many users may forgive a technology, but if it creates a major problem, many people stop using it.
Use of good technology becomes “invisible.” Most tools the people have, they don’t want to think about. When using a pencil, most people don’t have to think deeply about how to hold it, how much pressure to exert, and how to move it; they simply write or draw. It becomes an extension of themselves. The most successful technology is so easy to use that people forget they are using it. This is also demonstrated when the technology fails. When a pencil breaks, when a television screen starts to flicker, suddenly we are reminded that we are interacting with a technology, and can become frustrated quickly, especially if our attempts to fix it fail. That is why invisible use (easy and intuitive use) is delightful. It lets us focus on achieving our goals without drawing attention away to the tool we are using to achieve them.
People must have multiple ways or settings to interact with the technology (e.g., visual, auditory, tactile). Depending on the user group and the situation, certain interaction methods can fail. For example, in bright sunlight, it can be hard to see phone screens. Phones deal with this by making the brightness adaptive or adjustable based on context. For certain devices, users can also switch to an auditory interaction by using voice to text and text to voice. Making the technology robust user needs includes personalization options. For example, people have different needs and preferences for default text size, based on their own vision and distance to the screen. By making technology robust to contexts in which people will use it, and to different users’ individual needs, the technology is more usable in more situations and by more people. You essentially have a larger population you can sell your product to.
It does not matter how well your technology works if your user population cannot afford to buy (or rent) it. Therefore, the solutions need to fit the user’s budget. One mistake is to try to make a product do many things, which certain users do not need. These many things inflate the cost, due to price of equipment and engineering costs to make it work well. It is important to think hard about what elements of the product are truly necessary to its true function. In some cases, parts can be removed. In other cases, it benefits the product to create modular components. For example, some litter box robots, allows people to choose modules based on their needs and affordability.
When making purchasing decisions and long-term use decisions, people weigh the above usability criteria. For example, if the product meets a strong need people have, but it is not easily usable, they will hesitate to purchase it, and they will try to shop around for other options. To give a product the best chance of success, it should score highly on all of these usability criteria.
A note on making technology for individuals versus companies: Each of the items above will have different balance points for individuals versus companies. For example, companies may be able to afford more expensive technology, but expect a high return on investment. If they technology meets a high user need, they may choose to sacrifice usability – but only to an extent. Low usability can cause major problems for companies, like increased errors, and increased time to complete projects. Therefore, these components of usability are necessary regardless of who the customer is. The importance of each will shift up or down, depending on the individual customer.