A design team should be “user” driven and frequent contact with potential users is essential. To understand how a product, service or system may be used, the designer must consider the prior knowledge and experience of the users, as well as their typical psychological responses. Evaluation methods that utilize appropriate testing and trialling strategies must be used to determine these aspects.

• Usability objectives

• Enhanced usability

• Characteristics of good user-product interfaces

• Population stereotypes

• Usability objectives include usefulness, effectiveness, learnability, attitude (likeability)

• Benefits of enhanced usability include product acceptance, user experience, productivity, user error, training and support

• Characteristics of good user-product interfaces include simplicity, ease of use, intuitive logic and organization, low memory burden, visibility, feedback, affordance, mapping and constraints.

• Advantages and disadvantages of using population stereotypes for designers and users

Designers must consider the limits of population stereotypes. Through recognizing these limits, the designers can critically assess the appropriateness of their product in relation to those who will use it.