Different Users Want Different Things

To understand the various cultural positions users take, researchers separate technology users groups according to their attitudes toward technology (or other product-related characteristics) to clarify differences within the market. For example, a very common practice in business contexts is to distinguish between techies or innovators, early adopters, early and late majority, and laggards.[8] This kind of segmentation emphasizes differences of attitude and skill, but does not study users in contexts of use or as members of cultures. Thus a segmentation based on technology adoption only lacks a means of observing the changing nature of the innovation in question over time.

In the mobile phone business it is crucial that we understand not only the cognitive needs of individuals but also the broader issues arising from the social contexts in which our products are used. In the next section we will explore innately incoherent individuals and fragmented user populations from the viewpoint of sociological research tradition. Research in this tradition aims to enhance usability by problematizing the user and to expand it with contextually aware practices.

[8]E. M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations. New York: The Free Press, 1983.



Mobile Usability(c) How Nokia Changed the Face of the Mobile Phone
Mobile Usability: How Nokia Changed the Face of the Mobile Phone
ISBN: 0071385142
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 142

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