Acceptability Engineering: the Study of user Acceptance of Innovative Technologies

The discipline of human-computer interaction (HCI) has been vital in developing understandings of users, usability, and the design of user-centered computer systems. However, it does not provide a satisfactory explanation of user perspectives on the specialized but important domain of innovative technologies, instead focusing more on mature technologies. In particular, the success of innovative technologies requires attention to be focused on early adopters of the technology and enthusiasts, rather than general end-users. Therefore, user acceptance should be considered more important than usability and convenience. At present, little is known about the ways in which innovative technologies are evaluated from the point of view of user acceptance. In this paper, we propose Acceptability Engineering as an academic discipline through which theories and methods for the design of acceptable innovative technologies can be discussed.