Towards the use of “negative effects” in technology design and evaluation

Negative effects of computer use are reported in different studies; but so far no standardized framework exists to work with these issues throughout a user-centred design process. “Negative effects” are the result of user, context and task characteristics and they diminish the performance, the perceived ease of use or even prevent people from using technology. In this paper we discuss different aspects and ideas in order to debate “negative effects” as origin of design and as evaluation criteria. The high-level goal of this approach is to avoid negative effects by design. This paper describes a number of basic thoughts and considerations to describe the idea of how and why “negative effects” should be considered throughout the design process.