Evaluating the usability of electronic products by multi criteria decision making

EVALUATING THE USABILITY OF ELECTRONIC PRODUCTSBY MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION MAKINGMETHOD(M.Sc.Thesis)Fatih GAVGACIGAZI UNIVERSITYINSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYNovember 2006ABSTRACTFierce competitive environment force companies to produce customer orientedproducts. Manufacturers should ensure their products to function thoroughly,meet the customer needs and be utilised easily, in short they should ensure theirproducts be usable.Main goal in this study is to contribute to the literature on evaluating theusability of electronic products by multi - criteria decision making methodwhile explaining the usability concept.The usability concept and the fuzzy TOPSIS method, which is one of the multi -criteria decision making method, have been thoroughly reviewed within scopeof this study, and in the application part, a group of rapidly widespread mp3players where you can see in the market in different shape and features, havebeen analysed from the usability point of view. The method for analysis is thefuzzy TOPSIS method, which also has been observed within scope of this study.As a result of the application, alternative mp3 players have been evaluatedaccording to the criteria determined as a result of focus group study and one ofthe mp3 players that meets customer needs better than the others in a point ofdesign, ease of use and technical specifications is determined as a best productamong alternatives in a point of usability. Besides, at the result of the study, itis emphasized that manufacturers which do not consider customer needs anddo not make their designs as user-centered design have almost no chance tocompete anymore.Science Code : 906.1.309Key Words : Usability, Fuzzy, TOPSISPage Number : 69Adviser : Prof. Dr. Mustafa KURT