Usability laboratories at Philips : supporting research, development, and design for consumer and professional products

This paper describes two of the usability laboratories at Philips, discusses practical issues arising from our experience using the facilities, gives an example of a typical usability evaluation, and briefly outlines our vision for the future of the laboratories. Usability tests at Philips can involve any product from a portfolio ranging from Compact Disc Interactive (CD-I) to electron microscopes. Performing usability tests for consumer electronic products poses a number of specific problems: our user group is broad and diverse, the context in which our products are used is highly variable, and it is difficult to determine the importance of usability relative to other design goals. In the further development of our facilities, the efficient planning and the execution of usability test is of particular concern since we are driven by demanding time schedules. In the future, we expect a shift in focus towards testing more products and product concepts in their actual context of use