How to assess whether new technology is necessarily better technology

In 2002, 1000 million of the world population will have a noticeable degree of functional impairment (1). It is well established that impairments such as hearing and vision are degenerative and associated with increasing age. In response to these changes legislation has forced organisations to consider designing products for impaired user, eg the declarative stipulations from USA and UK have been instrumental in encouraging an upsurge of initiatives in ‘universal design’ (2) and ‘design for all’ (3). However, in spite of all these changes, it is still necessary to encourage better design, informing organisations of the impact that their strategic decisions have on their product accessibility. This paper aims to: present a new approach to inclusive design that evaluates the scope of user capabilities in relation to the usability demands made by a particular product. The method links population data with a capability assessment, an anthropometric analysis and an ergonomic appraisal; to determine the number of people that have the functional capability in using any considered product. The method is illustrated by reference to the measurable changes in usability resulting from the continual development of television sets. It comprises of three parts: i) a review of the information requirements for inclusive design coupled with a review of the availability of user capability and anthropometric data; ii) a description of the development of a framework for usability evaluation; iii) an evaluation of the new method by reference to its application to a redesign case study of television controls. Over the years televisions have evolved and these changes have been accompanied by a move from set top to remote controls. The review, using the approach described above, shall compare the relative merits of typical examples of each control technology