A method for systematic usability evaluation of interactive product interfaces

Purpose: The paper aims at defining a user-centred design method to develop interactive product interfaces that allows to stretch time to market and to reduce prototyping costs. Method: It consists in an experimental protocol to evaluate product interface usability and to correlate the achieved performance with its design features and attributes. It exploits low cost high- fidelity prototypes based on Augmented Reality techniques that allow users to interact with the Graphic User Interface and at the same time touch the object, explore its shape, the material it is realized to stimulate both cognitive and emotional response. Result: Experimental sessions have been carried out on a real industrial case that is the design of an interactive remote control device for bathtubs and showers. Time for the development of the final design solution halves because main usability errors have been detected at the early design stages and no iterative testing sessions have been carried out on the final physical prototype. Discussion & Conclusion: Conclusion provides some discussions of experimental results to highlight the effectiveness of the method to detect usability problems and support the definition of what to improve. Finally two research lines have R. Mneghellbeen drawn to foster improvements in virtual prototyping for interactive design.