What?
A proposal for a guide that helps consumer to buy a usable product. It was originally published in the Dutch Tijdschrift voor Ergonomie (Volume 33, Issue 1, February 2008). I've translated it in English, and added product examples and pictures that had to be cut from the final publication. The article (English version) can be found on my publications page, or to open the pdf-document directly, click here.

Why?
Somehow I always end up at people’s DVD-player. “Now this is what I call a stupid product. Can you figure it out? Here, take a look at this!” Or someone wants to buy a new mobile phone and will get the question what the user-friendliest model is. I may be working on a PhD on consumer product usability, but for one I don’t know the whole product portfolio of Nokia, SonyEricsson and Motorola by heart, and it is simply very hard to determine which phone would be best for someone. It really all depends. What are you good at, what do you want to do with it? Consumers should be able to assess for themselves which product works best for them. However, usability is not like styling, brand or price: it’s hard to experience a product’s usability without using it. Therefore: this step-by-step guide to enable consumers to purchase their your very own usable product.

Who is it meant for?
The guide itself is embedded in the paper, aimed at consumers, and written in plain language. I have added an introduction and short discussion section for product development professionals.

Summary
And the eight steps? In short, it comes down to this:
1) Functionality: What will you (really) do with the product?
2) Interaction: What is usability to you?
3) Determine the context of use
4) Collecting opinions – the Internet and friends
5) Support and manuals
6) In stores: try it out
7) Sales ‘advice’: always add a pinch of salt
8) Do-it-yourself usability evaluation