Productive Usability: Fostering Civic Engagement and Creating More Useful Online Spaces for Public Deliberation
- 16 March 2012
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Informa UK Limited in Technical Communication Quarterly
- Vol. 21 (3), 251-276
- https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2012.673953
Abstract
This article offers productive usability as a usability approach that focuses on the usefulness of civic Web sites. Although some sites meet traditional usability standards, civic sites might fail to support technical literacy, productive inquiry, collaboration, and a multidimensional perspective—all essential ingredients for citizen-initiated change online. In this article, we map productive usability onto broader philosophies of usability and offer a framework for rethinking usability in civic settings and for teaching productive usability.Keywords
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