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William R. Dolan

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Publications by William R. Dolan (bibliography)

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1999
 
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Dolan, William R. and Dumas, Joseph S. (1999): A Flexible Approach to Third-Party Usability. In Communications of the ACM, 42 (5) pp. 83-85.

1995
 
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Dolan, William R., Wiklund, Michael E., Logan, Robert J. and Augaitis, Sheila (1995): Participatory Design Shapes Future of Telephone Handsets. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 39th Annual Meeting 1995. pp. 331-335.

Telephone handset design has evolved for decades along with advancements in technology and manufacturing methods. Today, a handset could be reduced to a slim rod incorporating a miniaturized earpiece and microphone. However, most handsets look like the venerable K-type handset, such as those found today on many household and business telephones. Should future handsets continue to follow suit, or are there significant opportunities for improvement? Initially, we conducted five focus groups to answer this question. To begin each session, we photographed consumers holding handsets to assess gripping styles. Then, consumers rank ordered six conventionally designed handsets and six progressively designed handsets according to several ergonomic and emotional attributes. They also critiqued the handset designs according to personal preference and built clay models of their ideal handset. Based on this input, our team of human factors and industrial design specialists designed 6 new concepts, then obtained quantitative and qualitative feedback by conducting thirty focus groups in three metropolitan areas. This follow-on research, that included free association, sample handset assessment and, paired comparison and ranking exercises, identified significant opportunities to improve handset comfort, appearance, and emotional appeal. A Kruskall-Wallace H-test showed few significant differences in consumer preferences among 18 sample handsets. Our results indicate that users prefer a handset that can be shouldered, looks modern, feels good in the hand, and conforms to the face. We found that users are receptive to design innovation, but only if there is an ergonomic payoff. We include a discussion of detailed design recommendations in the last two sections.

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11 Feb 2010: Modified
17 Aug 2009: Added
26 Jun 2007: Added

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May 25

Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them.

-- Alfred North Whitehead

 
 

Featured chapter

Read the fascinating history of Wearable Computing, told by its father, Steve Mann

Read Steve's chapter !

 
 

Help us help you!