Use Qualities

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The use qualities of digital designs
Jonas Löwgren
complete draft 1.0, Oct 21, 2002
Interaction design is about creating conditions for good use of digital designs. But
the only way to learn those conditions, to understand the relations between design
choices and resulting use, is still largely by practice and apprenticeship. I propose to
think about interaction design in terms of use qualities, i.e., certain properties of a
digital design that are experienced in its use. Such qualities transcend the specific
design and offer a language in which to talk about desirable design outcomes.
I present a map of some twenty proposed use qualities and discuss them in some
detail.
INTRODUCTION
The nature of computing has changed over the last twenty or thirty years.
More importantly, the use of computing has evolved accordingly. This is
obvious but still deserves pointing out now and again. Whereas comput-
ers largely used to be tools for well-defined business tasks, they are now
used by most people for general knowledge work, social communication,
entertainment, recreation, shopping, creative expression and so on. A
crucial difference between then and now is that most use is discretionary.
People choose to use a digital service or product if they want to; other-
wise not.
Interaction designers are concerned with creating conditions for good
use. We do not know, however, what those conditions really are. One
thing that should be clear from the above is that good use is not confined
to efficient and error-free performance of tasks with set goals.
In my own design work, I have been occupied at times with reasonably
large sets of (somewhat) structured information. How could we imagine
people drawing more value, benefit, meaning from such information
spaces? And what can I contribute as an interaction designer? A few ex-
amples are Sens-A-Patch and the post-hoc worknotes project (Löwgren, 2001;
Andersson et al., 2002; web-09).

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As I developed concepts and prototypes, studied the empirical research
around knowledge work, and explored the ideas of other designers work-
ing in the field, a certain use quality started to emerge as highly relevant
to good use. Following the Pliant research group (web-08), I call it the
quality of pliability. A set of information is pliable if it feels to the user
like a responsive material. Inquiry, exploration and learning is a tight
loop between senses, thought and action. I make a move – the informa-
tion, the material shapes and responds – I notice something – I make
another move – and so on.
Pliability is an example of a use quality that I propose as important for
a certain class or genre of digital designs. At times, I have even claimed
that there exist genre-essential use qualities, i.e, qualities that are neces-
sarily present in the use of all instances of digital designs belonging to the
genre in question. Currently, I am prepared to back down a bit. After all,
it is perfectly possible that there are examples of good use in, e.g., interac-
tive information spaces that are not pliable at all.
I do, however, stand by the idea of identifying important use quali-
ties. It is my firm belief that attempts to articulate genres in digital design
and their corresponding use qualities are quite valuable in bringing the
field forward. First, they help practicing designers identify and move in
relevant directions in the early phases of contact with a new design situ-
ation. Secondly, they help clarify the communication between designers
and other stakeholders, primarily the clients. Thirdly, they provide a
format for constructing transferable design knowledge and thus hint at
one possible expression for a science of digital design.
IDENTIFYING USE QUALITIES
OF DIGITAL DESIGNS
In the following, I identify a few use qualities of digital designs that I
find important and possibly fruitful. They are grouped together in five
clusters, as the figure on next page shows.
Maps such as the one below always have a sense of finality, as though
they were the last word on the subject. However, I want to strongly em-
phasize the tentative nature of the work. It should be seen as a statement
in an ongoing debate, where the goal is not to win the argument. The
goal is rather the debate itself; to modify my initial proposal, question
my choices and structures, and add new concepts is to contribute to the
development of an amorphous body of knowledge that facilitates design
and supports better use of digital designs.
I called the map a »statement«, not an »opening statement«. There is
already a debate among designers, researchers, analysts and critics on the
conditions for good use of digital designs. Unfortunately, it is quite scat-
tered across the academic literature, the trade press and the professional
fora of digital design.
My work has consisted in pulling some of the threads together and
relating them to each other. This is in itself a statement on what I have

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chosen to include and omit, and what structure I have chosen. A small
part of the map is based on my own first-hand design experience, primar-
ily the notions of seductivity, pliability and social actability. I also have a
fairly strong background in the mainstream of HCI which entails quali-
ties such as efficiency and transparency. The rest of the concepts draw on
publicly available material such as other designers’ reflections, scientific
use studies and digital design critiques. I have introduced some of the
labels, whereas others are from the original sources.
I will now go through the clusters one at a time, discussing each pro-
posed use quality in some detail. I then close with a more general discus-
sion of my approach and its implications.
The group on the left consists of qualities having to do with motivation.
playability . . . . . A game has high playability when the player says »Just one more time!«
after game-over (Minter, 1997). The notion of playability is quite elusive
and obviously very attractive, given that computer games is one of the few
areas in digital design where the market »works« in the sense that con-
sumer preferences have economic effects. What I mean is that computer
games are assessed among players and reviewed in trade magazines. Their
playability (in the sense used here) is a strong factor in the overall judg-
ments formed by players and critics.
The literature on game play seems to suggest that playability is
connected to the balance of goals, resources and obstacles in the game
(see, e.g., Pearce, 1997). If the player can acquire the resources needed
A MAP OF USE QUALITIES,
WHICH I PROPOSE AS BEING
IMPORTANT.

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to overcome the obstacles and reach the goals, but only after significant
struggles, then the challenge is right to foster playability. This also entails
that a highly playable game should not avoid risks. In games based on
character identification, the playability would presumably be less if there
was no risk of failing. The struggle needed to reach the goals can certainly
involve dying and starting over a few times.
My use of the term goals should not be taken in any ultimate sense.
Quite to the contrary; a highly playable game has a progression of goals
where a new one is introduced as the present one is reached. In adventure
games, this progression is often connected with an unveiling or a new
turn in the plot. Point-scoring games typically have the ever-progressing
goal of beating the previous high score.
seductivity . . . . . A related quality is the seductivity of the use. In the words of Khaslavsky
and Shedroff (1999), seduction is a process of enticement (grabbing atten-
tion and making an emotional promise), relationship (making progress
with small fulfillments and more promises, possibly ongoing for a long
time) and fulfillment (fulfilling the final promises and ending the experi-
ence in a memorable and positive way).
The example offered by Khaslavsky and Shedroff of a seductive digital
design is the Visual Thesaurus by Plumb Design (web-10), a web applica-
tion that adds new dimensions on the well-known contents of a tradition-
al thesaurus by virtue of its interactive properties.
• It delivers surprising novelty for most users.
• It goes beyond obvious needs and expectations. The traditional orga-
nization of a thesaurus is mainly an effect of the (paper) medium.
• It creates an emotional response due to its visual and interactional
beauty.
• It connects to personal goals: the fascination of words and concepts
(and thus: mind and thought).
• It promises to fulfill those goals.
• It leads the casual viewer to discover deeper meanings of looking up
a word: the multidimensional and dynamic relationships between
concepts.
anticipation . . . . . Anticipation is a quality of use that has so far mainly been connected with
dramatic structures and various forms of plot-driven interaction. Fujihata
(2001) describes the interaction process as one of participation and imagi-
nation: »In an art of interactivity, one must be stimulated by interaction
and enjoy having one’s imagination activated. Interactivity is a stimula-
tion of the power of imagination. By the power of imagination, one tries
to see what will happen a few milliseconds ahead. This brings a future to
the present. It is a bridge between a past and a future. Only interactivity
can make such a jump, enabling us to escape from the chronological cage.
I believe it is a real creation.«
relevance, usefulness. . . . The heritage of work-oriented digital design has brought with it mo-
tivational use qualities such as relevance and usefulness. When we call
something relevant, and even more so when we call something useful, we
THE VISUAL THESAURUS.

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always need to orient to a purpose: useful for what? The traditional an-
swer is concerned with work tasks. If a system offers the information and
tools you need to perform a task, then it is a useful and relevant system.
The connections to modernist notions such as fitness for purpose should
be obvious.
Even though the concepts are typically used in reference to work tasks,
it may be noted that the words in themselves do not preclude other ap-
plications. For instance, it seems quite sensible to talk about the relevance
and usefulness of a web site dedicated to (hobby) fishing. But there are
certainly some limits to these and other purpose-related qualities. As we
move towards entertainment and aesthetic experiences, they seem to lose
their significance. Is Tetris a relevant game? How useful is Osmose?
The group of qualities in the middle have to do with the interaction, perhaps with
the surfaces offered by the digital artifacts for handling and perception.
fluency. . . . . Digital media are increasingly infusing our environment, typically per-
ceptible although not always in the focus of our attention. The growing
peripheral presence of digital designs highlights the need for fluency. Use
is not necessarily on-or-off, full concentration or not at all. It is rather a
fluent dance among multiple representations. Information streams move
between center and periphery as we move through the shifting environ-
ments of everyday life and work. Transitions need to be graceful and
nondisruptive.
As an example, consider Hazed Windows (web-05), a design con-
cept that was presented by a group of interaction design students at the
Malmö University school of Arts and Communication in 2001. The topic
of the project was Presence and the group had concentrated on light-
weight, peripheral social communication. The affective state they sought
is somehow related to the thoughts of a child who draws a picture for
grandmother without necessarily going through with the bigger com-
mitment of actually talking her parents into mailing the drawing. The
design is inspired by drawing in the mist on a window: you make marks
on a digital surface that is connected to other surfaces somewhere (at the
grandmother’s house, for instance). Your marks show up on the other
surface as well. The point is that the marks fade away gradually over time,
disappearing completely after a few hours. This technically simple feature
makes the whole communication situation different, starts from a fresh
set of assumptions regarding digital media, creates conditions for fluent
use.
autonomy . . . . . The autonomy of a digital design has a strong influence on how it is
handled and perceived. A strongly autonomous design, an agent, is an
artifact that acts on its own in the world defined by the symbols accessible
to it. It maintains its own goals, chooses its own means and can be said on
some sense to have a will of its own. To the user, an agent is an actor who
can be more or less collaborative.
It used to be interesting to anthropomorphize agents, that is, to de-
sign them with human traits or qualities. The Knowledge Navigator future

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scenario from Apple in 1987 features Phil, the intelligent desktop agent,
who looks like a clever young man with a white shirt and bowtie. The
user (a university professor) instructs him in spoken language to perform
tasks such as answering the phone and finding all relevant unread articles
for preparing a talk. A more recent example is the »help« function in
Microsoft Office.
On the other end of the spectrum, purely non-autonomous designs are
tool-like in their character. The user wields the tool to process materials
and refine them to work products. The tool is an extension of the hand or
the eye; an instrument that facilitates or enables certain actions, strictly
under user control.
The interesting parts of the spectrum are, of course, between the
two extremes. Virtual spaces are increasingly being used as habitats for
a-life (artifical life) creatures where the user/visitor can affect the course
of events to some extent. In some worlds, the user constructs her own
creature and then returns to learn how it has developed. An example is
The bush soul by Rebecca Allen (web-03); artists such as Christa Sommerer
and Jane Prophet have also presented work of this kind.
The genres of God-games and Sim-games can also be considered in
terms of autonomy. An overall epic or a world simulation run autono-
mously on a long-term timescale, whereas the player modifies local condi-
tions and hopefully the general development of the gameworld by her
actions. Are such virtual spaces and games autonomous or not? Clearly,
they occupy places somewhere between the pure agent and the pure tool.
Autonomy and fluency interact in an in-
teresting way in the installation Riding the Net
(Sommerer et al., 2001). The idea is that an
ongoing face-to-face conversation is captured
and analyzed by a system. The system recogniz-
es a word in the conversation, sends a request
for a Web image search based on the word,
and then presents the returned images floating
across a large display placed peripherally to the
conversation participants. If the participants do
nothing, the images simply float by and disap-
pear. However, if a particular image catches a
participant’s eye, she can reach out and touch
the display to hold the image still for a while.
One may easily imagine providing a more detailed view, richer informa-
tion and perhaps spawning a more focused search by, e.g., a tap on the
held image.
Apart from being an installation of digital art, Riding the Net can be
seen as a concept for less intrusive collaboration support. In that perspec-
tive, the relative autonomy of the system in selecting search criteria and
floating the images past the participants is significantly higher than for
most collaboration support systems coming out of cscw and hci tradi-
tions. Riding the Net thus becomes more peripheral in a context of collabo-
ration, and perhaps appropriately so.
RIDING THE NET.

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pliability . . . . . A set of information is pliable to the user if it feels like a responsive mate-
rial; a matter of inquiry that can be manipulated in an almost tactile
sense; a highly involved process of exploration where the loop between
senses, thought and action is very tight and rapid. I make a move – the
material shapes and responds – I notice something new – I make another
move – and so on. Ahlberg et al. (1992) discuss a similar quality in their
concept of dynamic queries, and call it tight coupling.
On a superficial level, I attempted
to explore the notion of pliability in
the design of the Sens-A-Patch inter-
action technique for navigation of
moderately sized information spaces
(Löwgren, 2001). It is based on the
idea of spatial constancy – informa-
tion elements stay in the same place
on the navigation surface through a
session and across sessions. In order
to fit many elements onto a small
surface, the presentation is based
on overlapping clusters, on of which
is active at a time and the rest are
visually faded into the background
(but still legible). The user experi-
ence indeed seems to create a certain
amount of involvement, at least visual interest. In one case when Sens-
A-Patch was used to present all the contents of a web site, some users
reported staying on the first page longer than their information demands
required, in order to play with the sensation of navigating the surface.
As we move beyond the surface, pliability as opposed to rigidity is
a possible direction in many fields of administrative data processing
(Henderson & Harris, 2000; web-08). It is often the case that the use is
unnecessarily constrained and structured merely because of the underly-
ing database structures used for implementation. It is quite feasible to
work in the direction of more free-form data, basing disambiguation and
other technical needs instead on social mechanisms. A simple example
is the rediscovery of the margins of paper forms, where annotations can
be made and tied to the appropriate context (the form itself) for future
interpretation. Most existing databases could easily be augmented with
free-form fields similar to the margin.
immersion . . . . . At the focus of our attention, handling and perception can become im-
mersive. Digital design offers possibilities for quasi-physical immersion
by means of virtual reality technologies. The idea is to fill our sensory
organs as much as possible with the »virtual world« and the canonical
example is, of course, Osmose by Char Davies (web-07). In addition to
visual and auditory immersion, the most powerful immersive effect in
Osmose comes from exploiting our kinaesthetic sense of body and mo-
tion. Moving around in the Osmose world is accomplished not by making
artificial gestures with datagloves, but rather by breathing in and out
SLIDING ACROSS
A SENS-A-PATCH SURFACE.

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and by shifting your body weight. Technically
speaking, there is a sensor around the chest
that is connected to your height above ground
in the virtual world. You are standing on sen-
sors that are connected to speed and direction
of travel. The experience of navigating through
the profoundly bodily function of breathing,
however, is not reducible to simple technical
understandings.
As we all know, immersion does not require
expensive equipment for sensory surround-
stimulation. There is another kind of immer-
sion that comes from engaging so deeply in the
task at hand that the world around it ceases
to exist. In terms of digital use experiences, it occurs sometimes when
writing, drawing, surfing the web. A slightly more passive but very real
form of immersion comes from participating in or being told a captivat-
ing story. But the perhaps most immersive activity in the digital realm is
programming, where complex structures are built in the delicate bal-
ance between the programming language constructs and the limits of
the programmer’s mental capacity. The following quote by Alex McLean
(web-04) should be familiar to many programmers although the specific
visualizations may differ widely.
Consider this mailing list post, part of a discussion about the »feel« of
computer languages.
»I’ve always pictured programming as a dance of sorts, very slow
and each gesture receives a great deal of attention, so that a limb or
a step would not stray from a particular path. Loops look like pirou-
ettes to me, I/O feels like delicate gestures with one’s hands, no, just
the fingertips drawing patterns in the air. Conditionals and cases are
tumbles and jumps (into the air, that is). Arithmetic is kind of hazy,
controlled slides with no traction (think ›slick moves‹), things being
pushed and brushed aside.«
A program in execution is a program in motion. Control flows
around the program, taking data with it. Data flows into the program,
and is breathed out again. A hacker staring intently into her screen is
probably turning somersaults in her mind.
The group of qualities to the right have to do with actions and their outcomes, on
social levels rather than the handling and perception of surfaces themselves.
identity . . . . . Constructing and maintaining identity is central in the use of digital
designs, which possess symbolic use qualities like any other designed ob-
jects. The culture recently growing up around skins for accessory desktop
applications demonstrates our common desire to project just the right im-
age. Translucent covers in vaguely organic shapes have been fitted onto all
available computing peripherals since the groundbreaking introduction of
the iMac in 1998.
THE OAK TREE BY THE POND IN
THE OSMOSE WORLD.

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But the construction of identity runs deeper than merely picking
the right skin (whether made of pixels or of plastic). The software of
Kai Krause and colleagues at MetaCreations in the 90s, the best known
examples perhaps being Kai’s Power Tools and Bryce, were mostly discussed
in terms of their innovative interfaces. However, the technical func-
tions offered by the software were far more important (albeit perhaps
less noticeable). Fairly sophisticated image manipulation, 3d modelling
and high-quality rendering were made accessible to a general audience
and their desktop computers for the first time. The software focused on
visual results, hiding much of the complexity behind a layer of skillfully
designed abstraction. Users with no training or innate talent in the visual
arts could produce stunning results quickly and with little effort – a sig-
nificant contribution to the ongoing project of reconstructing your image
of yourself.
actability . . . . . The extent to which a digital design empowers you to act is called (social)
actability. We may think of it as a space of possible courses of action,
shaped by many factors including the digital tools and media involved.
Classic examples include the atm and the redefinition of the bank in
everyday life, and the possible uses of anonymous conference boards for
open-hearted discussions as well as for vicious personal attacks.
When we look at fiction and narrative settings, the corresponding use
quality is typically called agency: the power to take actions with effects in
the dramatic universe (Murray, 1997).
A slightly more elaborate example is Avatopia (Gislén & Löwgren,
2002; web-02), an ongoing attempt to create a forum for nonviolent soci-
etal action among young teenagers in Sweden. Our design work has been
driven mainly by the goal of creating good-enough conditions for societal
action. In other words, it is an example of design for actability. Most of
the major design decisions can be traced to this goal. For instance, the
forum consists of an avatar world in interplay with a short daily maga-
zine on public-service tv: broad visibility is necessary for societal action.
There is a rather innovative tool in the avatar world for collaborative cre-
ation of film: expressive tools for action, fitted to the medium of dissemi-
nation. A group of teenagers have participated in the design of Avatopia
and will now move on to becoming beta-citizens as the avatar world is
implemented: the world is inhabited by rerasonably experienced citizens
already at public launch, hence the norms for action in Avatopia will be
more or less in place (socially speaking).
flexibility. . . . . There is a tendency, not the least among designers, to think of digital
designs as something that is finalized in a development process and then
deployed among the user community in its final shape. This is many
times adequate and not at all strange, given the heritage of mass produc-
tion and specialization of the industrial age. But at the same time, it is a
case of under-using the potentials of the digital material. The use quality
of flexibility is becoming increasingly relevant and deserves some consid-
eration.
FROM THE AVATOPIA DEMO
(WORK IN PROGRESS).

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The canonical example here is, of course, the spreadsheet. Microsoft
Excel and similar applications might seem like straightforward business
tools for financial calculation, but in fact they are highly sophisticated
programming environments. The programming paradigm is quite differ-
ent from what is normally thought of as programming languages, and it is
apparently easy to learn and use for people without training in program-
ming. Millions of people are doing systems development every day when
they construct spreadsheets with calculation formulae, for personal use or
for the use of colleagues in the group or department. Most of these system
developers have no formal training in systems development; many of the
systems they develop continue to grow and evolve locally as the business
needs change.
An increasing demand for flexibility can also be seen in the hacker
communities and their public outlets in the form of open source projects,
where design and use are closely linked in a never ending development
process. The basic rules are that you are free to use any program you can
find. If you don’t like it, you don’t file complaints. Instead, you modify it
according to your needs and give your modifications back to the commu-
nity. This culture of freely sharing work and building upon the work of
others can be found not only among programmers but also in, e.g., music,
web design and the digital arts. The idea of extending it to mainstream
application domains other than spreadsheet calculation is clearly appeal-
ing.
The group of qualities at the bottom of the map are mediations of structural
qualities, engineering ideals as reflected in use qualities.
efficiency, transparency The efficiency of using a digital design is typically connected to perform-
ing tasks with external purposes. Efficient use is rapid and error-free. The
interface stands between the users and their tasks; ideally, the interface is
transparent, such that the required operations can be carried out without
distractions. The field known as human-computer interaction or hci is
mainly oriented towards improving the efficiency of computer-supported
tasks.
elegance . . . . . The (technical) elegance of a digital design is a combination of power
and simplicity (Gelerntner, 1998). As a general aesthetic principle for
engineering, an artifact should perform as well as possible with as simple
a construction as possible. For programming, this translates to creating
elements (modules, objects, subroutines, programs) that compute rapidly
in few lines of source code. Note that simplicity is not a simple concept
– a highly efficient and compact program can be almost impossible to
understand for all but a few experts, still be considered an elegant piece of
work.
functional minimalism . . The elegance = power + simplicity formula is often translated to the
realm of use qualities, more or less consciously. The idea of functional
minimalism can be seen as a reaction to the exploding number of fea-
tures in many mainstream applications: provide tools that do their core

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functions well and nothing else.
The example presented by Shedroff
(2001) is the Black Berry, a wireless
pda strictly limited to the func-
tions of paging, email, notepad, and
personal organizer.
When the concept of Magic
Lenses was introduced by Xerox
Parc in 1993 (web-06), the com-
bination of power and simplicity
made the idea resonate with many
people. A Magic Lens is basically
a semi-transparent desktop tool
that you can move over objects in
a visual interface to get »behind
the surface« of those objects. The
first demos showed lenses that presented properties of graphics objects
and made them available for editing; the concept has since been applied
to various information visualization tasks. The power of the Magic Lens is
in the generality of the concept and the ability to see all the way into the
heart of the interface objects; the simplicity is in the immediately recog-
nizable operation.
Finally, the group of qualities at the top of the map have to do with creating a
distance between the user and the digital design. Distancing as a design strategy
is mainly found in critical art, although there is the occasional attempt to use
distancing qualities analytically in understanding also work-oriented use. One
example is Holmlid’s (2002) discussion of surprise and confusion as a complemen-
tary pair of aspects found in professional IT use.
surprise . . . . . When you use a digital design, it is surprising if it challenges your as-
sumptions. autoIllustrator by Adrian Ward (web-01) presents itself as a
prototypical member of the productivity tool class, a vector drawing
program that looks a lot like Adobe Illustrator and even has a similar name.
Once you start using it for drawing, however, you are constantly
surprised. The tools in the palette are not quite like the draftsman’s tools
you expect, but more playful and (perhaps) somewhat threatening. For
example, there is a setting that distorts your shapes such that, e.g., if you
try to draw a square it comes out as a children’s drawing of a house. The
color palette reacts to your choice of color by calling you a sissy and sug-
gesting a really strong color instead. There are little creatures called bugs
that walk around your drawing surface on their own, leaving ink in their
trails. Your assumptions are challenged with respect to the autonomy, the
toolness of the program.
parafunctionality . . . . . Dunne (1999, p.44) defines parafunctionality as a form of design where
function is used to encourage reflection on our relation to technology,
or »how electronic products condition our behavior.« Using a parafunc-
tional object creates a heightened sense of distance, mainly because it is
AUTO-ILLUSTRATOR IN USE.

12
conceptually difficult to assimilate into your view of reality. To acknowl-
edge its usability is hence also to discover new ways of seeing (parts of)
the world. It should be noted that some parafunctional designs cannot be
(safely) used, such as the Intolerable Object by Philippe Ramette whose lens
focuses sunlight onto the top of your head. Modelling a use scenario in
your mind is in many cases enough to achieve the enstrangement moti-
vating the parafunctional design.
An example of parafunctionality in digital design, striking in its
simplicity, is the atm competition proposal by Jeff Kipnis (cited in
Dunne, ibid.): »People like to play lotto and people like to use the atm.
Why don’t you make it an option in the atm to say put your card in and
say, I’ll bet a little bit and see if I can get a little more out, so you ask for
twenty dollars, and you push the button, and you could get twenty-five
or you could get fifteen.« I would expect that most readers have never
thought before about combining lottery and the atm, but once the idea is
introduced it gives rise to all kinds of thoughts from atm use to the role
of money in society and everyday life.
DISCUSSION
In the introduction, I claimed that the attempt to articulate use qualities
of digital designs serves three purposes in bringing the field forward.
First, a vocabulary of such qualities can be helpful to practicing de-
signers in early phases of a development process. In the initial contacts
with a design situation, not very much is fixed and any road forward
might be equally fruitful (or fruitless). If one or a few desirable use quali-
ties can be identified, roughly on the level of abstraction illustrated here,
the design process will more easily develop a sense of direction. As work
proceeds through conceptual to more detailed phases, the desirable quali-
ties can be gradually refined into more specific goals.
From a hci point of view, the approach I hint at above is a possible
answer to the commonly observed shortcoming of usability engineering:
that it is impossible in most cases to specify measurable usability goals as
early in the development process as the typical methodologies would have
it. Similar ideas of starting with more abstract goals, then gradually refin-
ing them into a usability specification, have been advanced. An example
is the notion of user experience goals suggested in the recent textbook by
Preece et al. (2002).
The second purpose is in clarifying communication between design-
ers and other stakeholders, primarily the clients. Different techniques
have been developed in the design disciplines to deal with this notoriously
difficult area, including the graphic-design practice of collecting and
discussing examples sharing a »tone« that we want to reach also in the
project at hand. Similarly, desirable use qualities can be communicated
and clarified by means of examples early in a digital design process.
Finally, the role of research in digital design as in any other field is to
construct and disseminate knowledge. If we assume that the development
of digital systems is a design discipline, it follows that the forms of knowl-

13
edge produced by research must be aligned with the forms of knowledge
used in design. It is my belief that the articulation of use qualities in digi-
tal designs can be a valid research contribution, provided that the results
observe the usual criteria for scientific knowledge production.
One specific criterion deserves a short note: the use qualities thus
articulated have to be transferable. This means that they are meaning-
ful outside the context in which they emanated and that enough data
and sources are provided for the reader to critically assess the value of
the constructs provided. As I hinted above, I believe that the articulation
of use qualities such as the ones above are one half of the constitutive
relationship in which a genre is constructed and maintained. Genres thus
define the scopes of essential meaning for the articulated qualities. An
over-simplified example of this argument would be the observation that
playability has no meaning, or at least no place as a desirable quality, in
the design of an industrial process supervision system. (Although it might
have in the context of training the process operators, as opposed to the
supervision and maintenance of the actual process.)
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