Commentary: Usability – A Sensitizing Concept

TY - JOUR

T1 - Commentary: Usability – A Sensitizing Concept

AU - Hertzum, Morten

PY - 2018/3/4

Y1 - 2018/3/4

N2 - In his article “The Usability Construct: A Dead End?”, Tractinsky (in Human-Computer Interaction) contends that for scientific research on usability to progress, the usability construct should be unbundled and replaced by well-defined constructs. This contention is presented as the conclusion that follows naturally from taking a scientist’s viewpoint on usability. Similar calls for definitive concepts – constructs in Tractinsky’s terminology – have been made in other scientific fields with concepts as ambiguous as that of usability. But counterarguments have also been presented.

AB - In his article “The Usability Construct: A Dead End?”, Tractinsky (in Human-Computer Interaction) contends that for scientific research on usability to progress, the usability construct should be unbundled and replaced by well-defined constructs. This contention is presented as the conclusion that follows naturally from taking a scientist’s viewpoint on usability. Similar calls for definitive concepts – constructs in Tractinsky’s terminology – have been made in other scientific fields with concepts as ambiguous as that of usability. But counterarguments have also been presented.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - usability

KW - sensitizing concepts

U2 - 10.1080/07370024.2017.1302800

DO - 10.1080/07370024.2017.1302800

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0737-0024

VL - 33

SP - 178

EP - 181

JO - Human-Computer Interaction

JF - Human-Computer Interaction

IS - 2

ER -