Johnson R. R., Salvo M. J. & Zoetewey M. W. (2007).User-Centered Technology in Participatory Culture: Two Decades ‘Beyond a Narrow Conception of Usability Testing.’ IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 50(4), (pp. 320-332). doi: 10.1109/TPC.2007.908730

In Robert R. Johnson, Michael J. Salvo, and Meredith W. Zoetewey (2007) article, “User-Centered Technology in Participatory Culture: Two Decades ‘Beyond a Narrow Conception of Usability Testing’” they argued that “usability requires a balance between empirical observation and rhetoric” (p. 320). Johnson, Salvo, and Zoetewey outlined usability by discussing the “end-of-the-line” problem, the complex relationship between rhetoric and science, efficiency, effectiveness, accuracy, the split between culture and science, human behavior, the “Uniqueness of Individual Perception,” the relationship between humans and technologies, contingencies and probabilities, corporatization, and audience analysis. Johnson, Salvo, and Zoetewey’s purpose was to show that the “long view, exemplified in both scholarship and theorizing, may be inefficient, but it remains the only avenue for innovation and coining new knowledge” (p.330). Johnson, Salvo, and Zoetewey’s intended audience was implied psychologist, technical communicators, and engineers. Johnson, Salvo, and Zoetewey effectively demonstrated the dynamics of usability and its different facets, but there should have been more specific examples of what usability was and why the considerations mentioned were necessary.