Usability Considerations in the Design of Handheld Electronic Devices

Gupta, S. P.; Keates, S.; Clarkson, P. J.

Abstract

Many handheld electronic devices such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and TV/video remote controls have become a part our daily life; and in recent years there has been competition amongst manufacturers to introduce increasingly compact forms of these products. Consequently, their sizes are decreasing gradually to palm size or smaller and the user-interface is becoming more difficult to interact with. Many of these products are not accessible to large sections of the population because the diversity in user capabilities and requirements was not accounted for during the design process. One reason for this is the lack of proper design guidelines to take account of the needs and expectations of a wider range of users. This paper focuses on the necessity of adopting inclusive design approaches in the design of handheld devices, describes some important design issues pertinent to these devices in general and finally aims to give a broad range of solutions that the designers can apply in a wide variety of circumstances when designing handheld electronic devices.

Citation

Gupta, S. P., Keates, S., & Clarkson, P. J. (2003, August). Usability Considerations in the Design of Handheld Electronic Devices. Presented at International conference on engineering design ICED 03, Stockholm, Sweden

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (Published)
• Conference Name: International conference on engineering design ICED 03
• Start Date: Aug 19, 2003
• End Date: Aug 21, 2003
• Publication Date: 2003
• Deposit Date: Feb 4, 2019
• Publisher: The Design Society
• Pages: 117-118
• Book Title: DS 31: Proceedings of ICED 03, the 14th International Conference on Engineering Design, Stockholm: Innovation
• ISBN: 1904670008
• Keywords: usability considerations design of handheld electronic devices, handheld devices, ergonomics, human factor, man-machine interface
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1497389
• Additional Information: The authors wish to thank the British Council, the Cambridge Overseas Trust and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for funding this research