User-Interface specification guidelines for consumer electronics products

An outline is presented of how usabil ity issues can be incorporated into the design and development process of consumer electronics products. The characteristics of usability of consumer products, and the problems with current user-requirements specifications are discussed. An important part of the user-requirements specification is the user-interface specification which specifies the product's external behaviour in user tenns. It describes for each product's function: (1) how it should be operated by the user, (2) what the effect is, and (3) what kind of feedback is given. The guidelines developed for user-interface specifications are presented. These guidelines contain per product function: (1) descriptions of the user actions (i.e., operational procedure) based on a classification of function types (i.e., structures of useraction sequences), augmented with (2) descriptions of the effect of user actions, and (3) descriptions of the feedback based on a classification of feedback types. In addition, the design rationale has been recorded in order to document and communicate the arguments behind the current guidelines throughout the design process, and to support their evolution in the future.