Integrating Usability in Development of a Digital Customizer for Product Design

Abstract

Usability is important in Web commerce; a usable Web site attracts users, while an effective customizer increases user satisfaction, thereby sustaining customer loyalty. This paper reports the process of integrating usability in development of a digital customizer for cell phone design, from documentation of customer preferences to translating them into design options, and implementing these in the digital customizer. Three studies were conducted sequentially. The first study documented customer needs on cell phone attributes, and their preferred design procedure. These requirements were then translated into virtual prototypes to be manipulated in a virtual environment. The second study developed the prototype, employing usability principles derived from the human factors literature. The final study evaluated the usability of the derived 2D and 3D customizer prototypes with real users. This provided comparative data about system effectiveness and user satisfaction of the customizer. Suggestions for improving the usability are discussed in relation to the prototype limitations.