Clarkson, John, Harrison, Lee-Anne and Keates, Simeon ORCID: 0000-0002-2826-672X (2001) How to assess whether new technology is necessarily better technology. In: International Conference on Inclusive Design and Communications (INCLUDE 2001), 18 - 20 April 2001, Royal College of Art, London, UK.

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Abstract

In 2002, 1000 million of the world population will have a noticeable degree of functional
impairment (1). It is well established that impairments such as hearing and vision
are degenerative and associated with increasing age. In response to these changes
legislation has forced organisations to consider designing products for impaired user,
eg the declarative stipulations from USA and UK have been instrumental in encouraging
an upsurge of initiatives in ‘universal design’ (2) and ‘design for all’ (3). However,
in spite of all these changes, it is still necessary to encourage better design, informing
organisations of the impact that their strategic decisions have on their product
accessibility. This paper aims to: present a new approach to inclusive design that
evaluates the scope of user capabilities in relation to the usability demands made by
a particular product. The method links population data with a capability assessment,
an anthropometric analysis and an ergonomic appraisal; to determine the number
of people that have the functional capability in using any considered product. The
method is illustrated by reference to the measurable changes in usability resulting
from the continual development of television sets. It comprises of three parts: i) a
review of the information requirements for inclusive design coupled with a review
of the availability of user capability and anthropometric data; ii) a description of the
development of a framework for usability evaluation; iii) an evaluation of the new
method by reference to its application to a redesign case study of television controls.
Over the years televisions have evolved and these changes have been accompanied
by a move from set top to remote controls. The review, using the approach described
above, shall compare the relative merits of typical examples of each control technology.

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Additional Information:	[1] Include 2001 Conference Book Abstracts from all the papers presented, biographies of the keynote speakers and a full programme of the conference. As given to conference delegates attending (revised edition) Details: A4 portrait, 106pp, illustrated Editor: John Bound, Roger Coleman Designer: Margaret Durkan
Uncontrolled Keywords:	how to assess whether new technology is better technology
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science T Technology > T Technology (General) T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science
Related URLs:	Publisher Publisher
Last Modified:	14 Oct 2016 09:31
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/12970

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