Making Easier-to-Use Products
Making Easier-to-Use Products
Practicing User-Centered Design
Sharp practices user-centered design (UCD) in order to provide products that customers find easier to use.
UCD is a concept—as outlined in the international ISO 9241-210 standard—to provide products and services that satisfy customers by seeing things from their perspective, understanding their needs, and reflecting them in product design. Sharp has its own UCD Basic Policy and the Eight Principles of UCD based on this concept and shares them across the Sharp Group. Sharp investigates customers’ latent dissatisfaction and needs as part of its product development process and reflects those findings in the specifications and design of its products. By repeatedly going through evaluations and improvements, Sharp is bringing forth products and services that customers find easy to use and attractive.
Flow of Customer-Oriented Manufacturing
Customer-Oriented Manufacturing
In user-centered design (UCD), Sharp collects customer feedback on ease of use through various methods and applies it to product design.
Through usability tests*, questionnaires, interviews, and opinions gathered from customers during Customer Assistance Center phone calls and repair visits, anonymous information from customers is compiled and shared among Sharp development personnel, who put it to use in new product design.
In support of these activities, Sharp has established a usability engineering training program (beginners to advanced levels) to raise employees’ awareness of the importance of product usability and provide a practical, specialized curriculum that ensures they continue to maintain and improve their skills and motivation.
- Tests that involve observing how people use Sharp products and services.
Comments from Participants in Usability Tests
- We could observe people outside our division who are similar to general users actually trying and giving their feelings on the products, and freely ask them questions, so I was able to obtain valuable information. (Sharp product planning staff member)
- As well as confirming there were no problems with product areas that were improved, we were also able to discover other issues moving forward. (Sharp app development staff member)
Efforts in Accessibility and Universal Design
In line with the UCD Basic Policy, Sharp also pursues accessibility and universal design (UD). These efforts are rooted in a philosophy of building products, information, and environments so that they can be used by many more customers—regardless of things like nationality, age, gender, or disability. Sharp strives to develop products and services that can be used comfortably by as many people as possible by conducting evaluations and surveys of mainly home appliances and digital multifunction printers (MFPs).
As of May 2024, Sharp’s efforts have produced 18 models of Sharp home appliance products that support the UD considerations listed on the website of the Association for Electric Home Appliances in Japan.
(a kiosk terminal to provide government services)
(for wheelchair users)
To continue the aforementioned activities company-wide, Sharp works to foster human resources
through training. The training focuses on accessibility and universal design, and is conducted within a usability training system providing specialized education. Introduction to universal design (e-learning), which is mainly aimed at imparting understanding and acquisition of basic UD knowledge, has been completed by a cumulative total of approximately 6,500 employees (as of April 2024).
As well, to deepen understanding of the needs of disabled users, there is UD experience learning where employees see firsthand what it’s like to be physically disabled so that they can know how to make products more accessible, and workshops where employees and disabled users discuss and brainstorm product accessibility ideas.
Comments from Participants in Workshops
- The workshop was valuable because it made me realize that it’s not enough to just imagine what disabled users need. (Sharp product planning staff member)
- In the brainstorming session we came up with concrete ideas with potential for actualization. There were other valuable takeaways; for example, I learned that in some cases functions I thought were helpful were actually not usable from a user standpoint, and that we should always think about how we can improve a product’s usability. (Sharp new product development staff member)
Efforts to Ensure Accessibility
Accessibility is the concept of making products and services so that they can easily be used by people who are in some way limited in their physical functions; for example, senior citizens and the physically disabled. Under U.S. federal law*1, federal agencies purchasing equipment and services are obligated to choose those that are accessible to everyone, including the physically disabled. For Sharp digital MFPs and other products, assessment results of accessibility standards stipulated by federal law are compiled on a product evaluation sheet (VPAT*2), which is disclosed on the website of Sharp Electronics Corporation (SEC), Sharp’s U.S. sales company.
- Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
- VPAT: Voluntary Product Accessibility Template. A table containing information regarding how a particular product or service conforms with Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act.
Example of VPAT for a digital MFP
Sharp Corporation Wins Gold Prizes in 2023–2024 Kaden Awards (Japan)
A number of Sharp products were given a gold prize in the 2023–2024 Kaden (“home appliances”) Awards. The FJ-HM7K Gourmet Cool freezer won in the second freezer category, the FP-S120 Plasmacluster air purifier won in the air purifier category, and the AX-LSX3A Healsio superheated steam oven won in the kitchen appliances category.
In the Kaden Awards, now in their ninth year, winners are chosen from home appliances released that year based solely on votes by readers of the GetNavi and the Kaden Watch media outlets. Winners are recognized as “the best of the best” based on the high praise they garner from customers. For the Sharp products, readers gave high marks for things such as superb performance, convenience, ease of use, and ease of maintenance.
FP-S120 Plasmacluster air purifier, gold prize, air purifier category;
AX-LSX3A Healsio superheated steam oven, gold prize, kitchen appliances category