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Chaired by HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
The Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce held a one-day conference on "Interface: User and Machine" instigated by the Duke of Edinburgh in November, and The Usability Company was there. The conference was such a success that a few speakers have been invited to the Palace this month to relay any more news on the subjects raised directly to the Prince.
The Prince had not realised, when he instigated the Conference that the room would be filled by "the converted" and that there were so many people in the design, marketing, and indeed usability community aware of user-centred design.
He gave us all an insight into his life; attempting to use the interfaces of some more recent technologies, he discovered that he thought he "was alone in finding them difficult and kept my problems to myself," he said. But, he concluded, manufacturers must 'get a kick out of hiding the on-off switch'. He complained of control panels that resemble the Rosetta Stone and video recorders that can only be set by 'lying flat on the floor with a torch in your teeth and a user manual'. Or indeed, what he tends to do at the Palace, is grab a "handy 5 year old, and get them to help".
The RSA assembled a great line-up of speakers from various backgrounds. Roger Coleman, director of the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre described the impact of a falling birth-rate worldwide, an ageing population and the move towards social inclusion as a philosophy. Universal design, he said, meant getting it right for everybody.
Sir Christopher Frayling, chairman of the Design Council and rector of the Royal College of Art, described the concept of UFOs "unwanted feature options" he concluded that some people – most probably technophiles - may enjoy "peeling the technological onion" but, that many features are there not because they are needed or useful but because the product is under-designed and over-technologised and "Not over-designed". Linn Products had a representative in the audience, who described that as soon as they removed UFO's from their home entertainment systems, their customers stopped buying the products, because even though they may never use all of the features offered, they perceived the value of the UFO's on competitor systems as adding value. There has to be a happy medium!
But, when it comes to accessibility of products and technology, there can be no choice, but to make them work. David Yelding of RICAbility, reiterated the concept of inclusive design. He described how RICA had never tested a product in the UK, which completely met their standards of "inclusive design".
A panel of industry experts also discussed usability and accessibility issues in general. Catriona Campbell of The Usability Company described what we feel is an important impetus for organisations across the UK to start designing inclusively – the Disability Discrimination Act revised code of practice, which now makes it "unlawful for service providers, landlords and other persons to discriminate against disabled people in certain circumstances".
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