My current job is about UX research predominantly in non-consumer ICT (information and communication technology) products. I’m looking for people who do similar work for information and experience exchange. Much UX stuff you find on the web is about consumer products and screen-based services but for me it’s quite difficult to find stuff about UX work on non-consumer equipment. I also screen the typical human computer interaction and ergonomics conferences and there’s also not too much coverage on professional and non-consumer equipment.
Anybody out there?
Andreas,
When you ask about non-consumer ICT, I'm not sure if I'm thinking along the same lines you are but the area I'm currently researching is educational technology where the user is not the consumer. That is, the end user has no say over the purchase or use of the product. I have commented publicly (EDUCAUSE 2014 and 2017) that this is a problem because it leaves little incentive for vendors to consider UX in their design. That is changing slowly as some companies (Canvas for example) use quality UX as a marketing tool to institutions rather than end-users. Is this similar to what you are thinking?
The other area I'm aware of is military applications in non commercial technologies. I've heard some people talk (conference panels) about the importance of UI/UX in these environments but the very nature of the products makes any research unavailable to the general public.
Hi Andreas,
what exactly do you mean by non-consumer ICT? Do you mean business ICT? Professional Programs / Equipment?
I think it might be helpful to look into expert Systems, even from the consumer ICT Domain.
If by non-consumer ICT you think about everything where safety/security/effectivity is more important than UX? You might find useful stuff in literature about expert Systems in General.
Best regards,
Patrick
Gentlemen, thank you for your answers.
@ Doug: I think you provided a good working definition of non-consumer stuff, the user is not the purchaser. Your challenges are very similar to mine. The other example, military UX, is not in my focus, but the work can be quite similar.
@ Patrick: In my company we have a broad variety of non-consumer ICT products, e.g., mobile broadband antennas & equipment, enterprise IT (servers, switches, storage), smaller devices such as WiFi APs, etc.
In regard to the above mentioned cases, there are remarkably fewer opportunities to exchange such as conferences, communities, etc. The main public activities in UX typically address consumer stuff, mobile or other screen-based apps. However, people who address the really dirty workplaces, heavy equipment or non-fancy devices aren’t that prominent in public. That was my motivation for this question and I have the feeling that you face similar work.
Our user research on clinical health care would probably qualify. Technical Report Modeling and Analysis of Clinical Care for HIT Improvement: ...
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