Do Design Tradeoffs Exist between Usability Features for Consumer Products?

Abstract

The existence of design trade-offs between usability features for consumer products has been discussed in textbooks and other publications for many years (e.g., Norman, 1986). Tradeoffs occur because optimizing one feature will mean that another feature will suffer. A single product cannot be best across all dimensions of usability. In this study, NGOMSL (Natural Goals Operators Methods and Selection Rules Language) was used to model the usability of several consumer products (telephone answering machines, VCRs, calculators, and electronic organizers). In each product category, at least four different products from different manufacturers were modeled. The results showed that some product categories exhibited distinctive tradeoffs among usability features and other product categories did not. Reasons for these differences are discussed.

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