The Product Ecology is a theoretical framework that 1) describes social product use — how products evoke social behavior; 2) provides a roadmap for choosing appropriate qualitative research methods to discover social product use; and 3) extends design culture in interaction design and HCI by allowing for flexible, design-centered research planning and opportunity seeking.
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Unlike human factors, which seek to generalize human behavior, the Product Ecology seeks to find differences among individuals that help form patterns relative to product use and adoption. These include personal history, age, lifestage, gender, one’s role in a situation at any given time, and one’s role in a group.
