Detailed effects of experience in inclusive design

Inclusive design research has produced guidance and simulations to encourage youthful, male designers to consider elderly and impaired users. Whilst locomotive and sensory impairments attract the most research, methods to alleviate cognitive difficulties in product design remain lacking. Knowledge of users' previous experience can be harnessed to develop improved products. In previous work it has been shown that the influence of experience in learning a new product is strong alongside intelligence, age and generation. Experience of similar products or other products from the same manufacturer assist the user in understanding the operation of a new product without having to adopt a 'trial and error' approach. A spectrum of users completed trials on two consumer products. The trials were split into tasks that varied from 'everyday' usage to those seldom used. Correct completion of a task was represented by a series of operations that was analysed to identify its demands on experience. Previous experiencewas scored by a questionnairewhere positive answerswereweighted based on howrelevant the experience would be in using the new product. Studying the relationship of error occurrences and task times against experience scores with the individual task demands reveals the detailed effect of individual product features in assisting the user to learn a new product. This understanding of key product features can be used to provide guidance to designers who wish to include older populations.