Products’ Usability and Brand Preferences: The iPod Case Study

As technologies develop, the number of electronics products that provide different functions is increasing. According to this phenomenon several studies on info-products (Norman, 1998) usability are in progress. Traditionally, methods and techniques for usability assessment focus on the efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction of products (ISO 9241) and they do not take into account the sensitive condition of users and their own preferences. This study aims to understand whether a relation exists among the degree of affection towards the Apple brand, the feeling of fatigue due to the use of the iPod, and the real effort spent by people interacting with the device. To reach this goal we designed an experiment engaging 18 students. Our hypothesis is that the existence or non-existence of a brand image might affect the perception of the mental and physical demand in operating with the iPod when people are novice users. For the selection of the experiment sample we developed a specific questionnaire to assess the affection of people towards Apple brand, on the basis of the questionnaire results we divided people into two groups (group A, with a positive Apple brand image, group B with no brand image). For the assessment of the perceived cognitive and physical effort we applied the NASA TLX test; to measure the real fatigue spent by subjects we conducted a users’ test. The results obtained show that: for group A the affection towards Apple does not influence the awareness on the level of effort required to interact with the iPod; people from group B manifested a significant level of frustration with the iPod nano that people from group A did not express. That shows that individuals’ psychological state towards a brand may affect users' frustration when interacting with a product and this may invalidate the results obtained from usability tests.