Usability Design And Evaluation Of Digital Entertainment Devices

Computer, mobile phone, PSP(play station portable)et. are the main forms of digital entertainment devices. Digital entertainment is widely accepted nowadays because of its interactivity, extensive choices and little limitation. The development of digital entertainment industry providing users with brand new lifestyle, and at the mean time, there are raising concerns over the usability problems of these products. Bad design becomes more devastating than ever, every subtle issue may cause the whole system unusable. So how to make the product harmless, convenience and enjoyable for our users are becoming the focus of attention.Followed the principles of usability engineering and the user-centered design guidelines, this article discussed the usability design process for digital entertainment products. After analysed the related usability theories for both hardware and software, a usability evaluation framework which is especially for digital entertainment products was proposed. According to the framework, a usability test was carried out for the existing products, and their usability problems were summarized and these conclusions could be used as reference for the further study. User requirements were collected based on the investigations. Then a prototype design and its assessment was conducted. All these work covered the critical steps of usability design process of the digital entertainment products.