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| With technological innovation, products are becoming increasingly advanced and multifunctional, while at the same time also becoming more complicated. Accordingly, Sony has identified "usability" as an essential aspect of product quality and is taking steps aimed at making it easier for people to use Sony products and services. |
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Verification through Usability Assessment
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| Sony conducts product development from the perspective of the user. To verify the user-friendliness of prototypes at each stage of the development process, Sony conducts usability assessments, inviting actual customers to test-use products, ascertaining their views and ensuring results are reflected in the final product. Issues identified through this process may also lead to the improvement of other products. |
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| Usability assessment |
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Making Products Easier to Use
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| Sony incorporates the concept of usability into its product planning and design processes. For example, the ICF-B01 emergency portable radio with charging handle allows the user to recharge the radio simply by turning the handle, making it possible to use both the radio and built-in penlight even if the regular dry-cell batteries die. The charging handle can also be used to charge a mobile phone. The radio's design was conceived to make it suitable not just for emergencies, but also for every-day use. The radio's design underscores careful attention to ease-of-use, reflected in a large tuning dial that enables swift tuning even in unsettled conditions. The design also ensures an easy readability thanks to the use of large print in the tuner panel. |
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| ICF-B01 emergency portable radio with charging handle |
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Age-based Rating Systems for Game Software
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Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) aims to make games as popular as music, movies and broadcasting and has been developing its PlayStation® business for users in all age groups. Game industry organizations have responded to the proliferation of new game genres by introducing rating systems for customers in Japan, the United States and Europe (CERO, ESRB and PEGI, respectively), based on games' target age groups. The U.S. system has operated for 10 years and won top marks from the public not only for indicating age categories but also for being the first to add descriptions that detail the contents of a game. PEGI is endorsed by the European Commission as a paradigm of self-regulation in the entertainment industry. In Japan, measures are being promoted to make the system more effective, including, with the cooperation of retailers, the voluntary refusal to sell software rated by CERO for ages 18 and above to underage customers.
To regulate access by underage users, SCE included a Parental Lock function in PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) and PLAYSTATION®3. This function enables customers to adjust access levels and limit children's access to only appropriate software across the PlayStation® platform.
With the average age of Web users declining, concern is growing about sites on the Internet containing content that is inappropriate for or harmful to children. So-net Entertainment Corporation, which provides an Internet-related service, has introduced Site Select, a filtering system that blocks access to such sites, as well as to sites targeted by phishing scams, thereby creating an environment in which the whole family can enjoy Internet use worry free. |
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©2007 So-net Entertainment Corporation
The So-net website's Site Select page (Japanese only) |
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