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6.3 Some practical issues 173

some of these in Chapter 3. For example, a person's physical characteristics may af-
fect the design: size of hands may affect the size and positioning of input buttons,
and motor abilities may affect the suitability of certain input and output devices;
height is relevant in designing a physical kiosk, for example; and strength in design-
ing a child's toy-a toy should not require too much strength to operate, but may
require strength greater than expected for the target age group to change batteries
or perform other operations suitable only for an adult. Cultural diversity and expe-
rience may affect the terminology the intended user group is used to, or how ner-
vous about technology a set of users may be.
If a product is a new invention, then it can be difficult to identify the users and
representative tasks for them; e.g., before microwave ovens were invented, there
were no users to consult about requirements and there were no representative
tasks to identify. Those developing the oven had to imagine who might want to use
such an oven and what they might want to do with it.
It may be tempting for designers simply to design what they would like, but
their ideas would not necessarily coincide with those of the target user group. It is
imperative that representative users from the real target group be consulted. For
example, a company called Netpliance was developing a new "Internet appli-
ance," i.e., a product that would seamlessly integrate all the services necessary for
the user to achieve a specific task on the Internet (Isensee et al., 2000). They took
a user-centered approach and employed focus group studies and surveys to under-
stand their customers' needs. The marketing department led these efforts, but de-
velopers observed the focus groups to learn more about their intended user group.
Isensee et al. (p. 60) observe that "It is always tempting for developers to create
products they would want to use or similar to what they have done before. How-
ever, in the Internet appliance space, it was essential to develop for a new audi-
ence that desires a simpler product than the computer industry has previously
provided."
In these circumstances, a good indication of future behavior is current or
past behavior. So it is always useful to start by understanding similar behavior
that is already established. Apart from anything else, introducing something new
into people's lives, especially a new "everyday" item such as a microwave oven,
requires a culture change in the target user population, and it takes a long time
to effect a culture change. For example, before cell phones were so widely avail-
able there were no users and no representative tasks available for study, per se.
But there were standard telephones and so understanding the tasks people per-
form with, and in connection with, standard telephones was a useful place to
start. Apart from making a telephone call, users also look up people's numbers,
take messages for others not currently available, and find out the number of the
last person to ring them. These kinds of behavior have been translated into
memories for the telephone, answering machines, and messaging services for
mobiles. In order to maximize the benefit of e-commerce sites, traders have
found that referring back to customers' non-electronic habits and behaviors can
be a good basis for enhancing e-commerce activity (CHI panel, 2000; Lee et al.,
2000).