Usability Assessment to Address Interaction Design

Interaction design refers to design of interactive products and services with a specific focus on their use. Going beyond the traditional instrumental qualities such as usability and usefulness, the present research have a twofold objective: the definition of a structured protocol to define which product features most determine the synaesthetic impression and the evaluation of a proper supporting experimental environment to assess the different perceived qualities of consumer products with high aesthetic and technological values. In this way it is possible to find out which aspects have a greater say in the design definition. The protocol has been tested both on different prototypes in physically and virtually based environments to verify two hypotheses: H1. the analysis of users’ response during usability tests enables designers to indentify the best design alternative in terms of shape, material and technological composition; H2. users’ response is highly affected by the exploited prototyping technique. The best supporting environment will combine different sensorial channels by adopting a mixed set-up Potentialities and limitations of traditional and VR-based set-ups have been discussed by comparing users emotional and cognitive responses during products experience.