Usibility factors in customer-oriented designs: An application

Competitive conditions in the current business world have been forcing manufacturers to adopt more customer-oriented design and production. Companies have been looking for the answer to the following question: ?How can we be more customer-oriented?? Manufacturers want their products to be easy to use and to meet consumer needs. The aim of this thesis is to define ?usability?, and to emphasize the strong bond between the ?Competitive Advantage-Customer Oriented Design and Usability?. Another aim of the study is to explore a ?mathematics based usability test?, which will allow us to compare the usability of products by benchmarking. The concepts ?Competitive Advantage?, ?Customer-Oriented Design? and ?Usability? are examined in the thesis and the literature regarding usability evaluation methods is provided. In the application section, a group of TV remote controls with different shapes and sizes that are frequently used was selected and evaluated in terms of usability. An appropriate mathematical method was chosen among the usability evaluation methods reported in the literature. Alternative TV remote controls were evaluated by this Usability Test, and the product with the best design was determined (i.e. the one that met the user?s expectation best). It is constantly emphasized in the thesis that ?in today's business world, companies taking user expectations into account and working on ?User-Oriented Design? will be one step ahead in terms of competitive advantage.