Anvendelsessituationen

Anvendelsessituationen, or usage situation, is the real-world context in which a product or system is used. It describes who uses it, what tasks are undertaken, which tools or interfaces are involved, and the physical, social, and temporal environment in which it operates.

The concept covers multiple factors: user characteristics such as skills and preferences; tasks and goals; available resources, constraints, and safety requirements; the hardware and software interfaces; environmental conditions like lighting, noise, or weather; and the social setting, including teamwork or supervision, as well as time-related aspects such as urgency and duration.

Understanding anvendelsessituationen helps define design requirements, develop use scenarios, and perform task analysis. It informs decisions about feature sets, layout, control methods, error handling, and accessibility. By grounding design in real contexts, teams can set realistic evaluation criteria and create products that are usable and safe across intended environments.

Common methods to capture usage situations include field observations, ethnographic interviews, diary studies, context mapping, and stakeholder workshops. Representations such as scenarios, personas, user journeys, and task analyses help communicate context to designers, developers, and testers.

Examples of usage contexts include a smartphone app used outdoors in bright sunlight, in a moving vehicle, or with gloves on; a medical device deployed in hospital versus home care; and a kitchen appliance used in a compact apartment. The aim is to identify context-driven variations that influence usability and safety.