Oct. 4, 2019 - Most people have a sense of when a consumer product “works well” or doesn’t, but few can articulate exactly what makes a usable product intuitive. I fell into the former category until taking my first UX Certificate class, Human Factors, the foundational course that showed me a new way of understanding, and scrutinizing, product interactions — both physical and digital.

I reviewed the OontZ Angle 3XL – a wireless (Bluetooth), portable stereo speaker made by Cambridge SoundWorks – through the lens of the six-part human interaction model (sensory system, pre-attentive processing, mental models, cognitive skills, memory systems, and emotions) shown. Where appropriate, I offered suggestions for improving the design and user-product interaction.