Usability of consumer electronic products

The concept of usability has been applied to the design and evaluation of s oftware user interfaces in which user performance was the major issue for i mprovement, Recently. it is being applied to consumer electronic products b ecause companies consider it an important key to their success. However. th ere is a difference in the concept of usability between the two application s. Unlike the software user interfaces, the image/impression felt by the us ers are as important as the performance for a consumer electronic product t o be successful. It is therefore necessary to redefine the concept. Althoug h a variety of new concepts have been suggested, there is no widely accepta ble one. This study provides a new definition of usability applicable to th e consumer electronic products. It defines the usability as the degree to w hich the users are satisfied with the product with respect to both the perf ormance and the image/impression. In addition, it classifies dimensions tha t can explain various and complex aspects of the usability. The results of this study are expected to provide a framework for designing and evaluating the user interface of consumer electronic products. Relevance to industry This study presents the definition of usability of consumer electronic prod ucts and its dimensions. They can be used in the design and evaluation stag es of a product development process, In addition. they would be helpful in understanding the user requirements systematically. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scien ce B.V. All rights reserved.