Adapting users : towards a theory of use quality

Sammanfattning: The power ofperiods of learning and the knowledge of training professionals areunderestimated and unexplored. The challenges posed in thisdissertation to usability and hci deal with the transformation fromusability to use quality, and learning as a means to promote usequality. The design of interactive artefacts today is mostly based on theassumption that the best design is achieved by formatively fittingproperties of the artifact in an iterative process to specifiedusers, with specified tasks in a specified context. As a contrastto that one current trend is to put a lot more emphasis ondesigning the actual use of the artefact. The assumption is thatthe best design is achieved through a design process where theartifact is given form in accordance to how it is put to use. We want to provide stakeholders of systems development with anincreased sensitivity to what use quality is and how they mightparticipate in focusing on use quality. Thus, we have askedourselves what specific use qualities, and models thereof that wefind and formulate when studying a set of systems in use at a bank,for the purpose of supporting learning environment designers. This thesis reports on the development of a theory of use qualitybased on theoretical investigations and empirical research of usequalities of interactive artifacts. Empirical studies wereperformed in close collaboration and intervention with learningenvironment developers in two development projects, focusing on usequalities and qualities of learning to use the artifact. The fourstudies comprised; 1] (learning to) use a word processor, 2] usingexperiences from that to formulate models of use quality as adesign base for a learning environment for a teller system, 3](learning to) use the teller system, and finally 4] assessment andmodelling of the use of the teller system. The specific results are a set of models of use quality,encompassing a number of empirically derived use qualities. Themost central of the latter are; surprise and confusion, the thin,but bendable, border between ready-to-hand and present-at-hand, anelasticity of breakdown; ante-use, that which precedes use;dynamicity and activity, the timebased qualities without which theinteractive material can not be understood or designed. The generalresults are presented as a theory of use quality, representedthrough a set of models of use quality. These models are aimed atdesign for use, rather than focusing on, in a monoculturalfaschion, an artifact-s properties, its usability, itspresence or the user experience.