Usability in Context. I: Usability and the Liberal Revolutions

Abstract

Liberal revolutions involve a change in the availability of a resou rce from being centralized among a small elite to being distributed among many people. This paper reviews three liberal revolutions – in religion, politics, and economics – to examine the dynamics of change and to derive three general principles: (1) revolutions breed counter-revolutions, (2) revolutions require the appropriate conditions to succeed, and (3) revolutions in different domains influence one another. The paper then examines the role of usability in two on-going liberal revolutions – in technology and information. The operation of each of the principles is examined in order to determine ways to apply usability research and engineering most effectively.