Chapter 11
Agenda/Learning Objectives
Examine why hardware has unique UCD considerations
Review hardware UCD best practices
1) Examine why hardware has unique UCD considerations
a) Why is hardware unique?
i) Hardware simply has more considerations than how a user engages with an interface
ii) Users touch and manipulate hardware whether its simply held or worn
iii) Ex: EyeGuide (camera placed directly in line of sight, didnt compensate for head
impacts the other and the overall design
2) Explore the materials, tools, and costs implicit in hardware UCD
a) Try the junkyard approach starting off to decide which materials (and thus knowledge
bases) are required
b) Hardware requires several components:
3) Discuss how/why to conduct prototype iteration and testing for hardware UCD
a) Be prepared to throw your prototype away and start again
b) You cant use the excuse that because youre creating hardware that you cannot prototype as
much
c) You need to prototype as much as if not more than software
d) Knobs, handles, buttons, and other form factors, such as weight, size, and wearability, all
have to be prototyped
4) Review hardware UCD best practices
a) Avoid Too Much White Space
i) Too much white space may mean users cant use your hardware, or at least cant use it
effectively
ii) Be innovative, but not at the expense of your targeted users being able to use your
beneficial: it forces… [the user] to concentrate on the form of the product. Form helps to
convey how something might be used, and you need to confirm that your design
provides affordance effectively to the user. (Wu, n.d.)
iv) You can just create modules or parts of the form (such as the seat of bicycle and not the
entire bicycle) and still learn quite a lot
etc.
ii) Too many anything = overwhelmed user
iii) Think clean, displaced, simple design
iv) Only add features as warranted through user feedback
e) Open Team Collaboration
ii) Otherwise, you can pay for vendors to make molds and plastics for you in small runs
iii) You can also experiment with handmade molds (ingredients are available at local
hobby/craft stores)
(a) If you are prototyping electronics you must invariably create wired connections
to power your custom or off the shelf components (so get familiar with
soldering)