Mode-of-use Innovation in Interactive Product Development

Background: Mode-of-use innovation, or the innovative means by which products may be used, is considered as one lever for design-driven innovation. The current study explored how the mode-ofuse concept may apply to state-of-the-art product interactions and enhance user experience, in turn providing opportunities for design-driven innovation within the interactive product space. Methods: As framework to explore the application of mode-of-use innovation in interactive experiences, we adopted taxonomy of interaction styles. Generic interaction styles in product experience were classified through two criteria; whether interaction supports explanatory or exploratory modes, and whether the product interface is discrete or composite. Adopting a researchthrough-design approach, two interactive mood lamps were designed, expressed as high-idelity prototypes and used as stimuli to evaluate product experience according to different interaction styles. Results: Results indicated that the touch-free magic interaction style, an interaction providing explorative and composite modes of interaction, was initially considered more innovative in terms of mode-of-use, possibly triggered by the novelty of the interaction. However participants also expressed negative experiences in touch-free magic interactions compared to explanatory modesof-use interactions due to poor haptic feedback and inability to intuitively understand the mode-ofuse. Conclusions: Implications for understanding how mode-of-use may be applied to interactive product design are finally discussed. Although more work is required to understand how best more novel explorative interactions may stimulate initial feelings of innovativeness, caution is required in providing mode-of-use innovations that allow opportunities for clear understanding of interaction as related to function feedback, mapping well onto user expectations.