Using laddering and association techniques to develop a user-friendly mobile (city) application

In this paper, we present an ongoing project on the concept of interaction among people via a mobile (city) application. The focus of our research lies on its usability and sociability, i.e., on all aspects that are related to community forming and development in a city context. In order to analyze them, we have developed a method that combines two techniques that are not common in usability studies: the association technique and the laddering method. We have called this combination the 'connotation chain' technique. In this paper, we will first introduce this technique showing its advantages and disadvantages in a usability study. Then, we will present the results of applying this technique to our specific objective and, finally, we will discuss its implications for the further development of the interface of this application. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.