Abstract
This thesis seeks to explore something of the current nature of human, social and business
contingencies constituting and motivating design, production, consumption and the use of
technologies. It places a particular emphasis on the innovation of TV-centric network technologies -
'new' media technologies, particularly interactive television (i-Tv), intended to link, enhance or
otherwise augment existing television technology and content. The empirical work in the thesis studied
the development and implementation of a complex large-scale i-Tv trial in Cambridge, UK. Issues
arising from the research led to the development of a general research framework - Contextual
Usability (CU) - whose central aim is to draw awareness to the complex and multiple dimensions of
the use process as a social and organisational construction, and also to redefine its place as an intrinsic
experiential dimension in the domestication of products and services.
Various senior managers and designers were interviewed within the company designing and producing
the i-Tv technology and interface for the trial, as were 11 participant households. The author concludes
with an overview suggesting the interconnected and interdependent nature of trials, technology, users,
design, designers and organisation. For this he uses CU in relation to Molina's notion of
Sociotechnical Constituencies to illustrate how social, cultural and organisational elements of trials
both rely and impinge upon the implementation and interpretation of user and consumer research, and
thus working 'images'of the user and the use process.
