Concept Marketing Group Inc.

The term Context of Use refers to the actual setting within which users employ a given product, artifact or software program (e.g. a web application). The context of use setting is comprised of all the situational factors that contribute to the overall usability of the product:

1. Environmental Factors: Physical conditions such as time, space, noise, cleanliness etc.
2. Organizational Factors: Work processes, organizational or social networks, and pressures related to organization and management.
3. Broad Social Factors: Family constraints, economy, ethical standards, career aspirations/interests etc.
4. Technical/System Factors: System stability, network connectivity etc.

All of these factors can contribute to the use of any product within any context (although clearly technical factors are relegated to technical contexts etc). For example, when designing a toy for children, the context of use needs to be understood: where will it be used (school or home), how old will the children be when they use it, does it need to be shared, is the toy easy to clean or hard to clean etc. The toy will be used in a specific environment, and its features should be designed to thrive within this specific environment. Thus, it is important to understand what factors comprise each individual context of use because designers are then better able to understand their users, their users’ limitations, and their users’ needs. This ensures that all the factors that relate to the use of the system are accounted for and understood when designing the product and the future usability tests intended to validate the usability of a product. Just as with any other product, the context of use has a great impact on software applications and the user interface design.

Context of use analysis and user interface design

The importance of understanding the context of use when producing a successful interface design has lead to the creation of a usability method called context of use analysis that is commonly used by interaction designers and interface designers. Context of use analysis refers to a brainstorming method used to construct successful usability tests during a website or application development process. Successful user interface design requires the analysis of user experience feedback in order to create a user interface characterized by optimal usability. However, collecting meaningful user experience feedback and interpreting it is not always simple, especially when interface designers lack a solid methodology or have not thoroughly thought through their usability tests. Preparation matters in order to overcome those difficulties, such as defining the site’s target users or knowing what kinds of tasks they will need to perform and what types of goals they want to achieve. When interface designers are unclear about these salient usability test questions, creating a test that is realistic and relevant and results in meaningful knowledge about the new interface design concept becomes difficult. Without knowing about the context of use, interface designers run the risk of creating interface designs that do not satisfy the requirements dictated by the way the products will be used. The resulting interface designs are not usable. This is why context of use analysis is a crucial usability method: it allows designers to create tests based on predetermined context-specific user needs and performance paradigms. Thus, designers not only learn what user experience feedback to elicit and how, but also have a framework to interpret the feedback in order to create a solid interface design that works.