1) What does 'usable-in-life' mean?
Usable-in-life is basically whether or not a device is easy to operate and how well it performs when taken from a staged, controlled testing room and deployed in the 'complex, messy world of real situations' and everyday use. A device can appear impressive in the testing phase ('usability-in-itself'), but when that device is released into the real world, it can disappoint dramatically.
2) How is 'usability-in-life' different to 'usability-in-itself'?
As mentioned briefly above 'usability-in-itself' is when a device is tested in an isolated, controlled environment behind closed doors and each component is separately tested. If each component is given the thumbs up by the test officials, it is deemed to be usable in the real world. However, people are not always sat down in a quiet room able to think about what they are doing. The fundamental difference is that 'usability-in-life' deals with how usable the device is at performing the functions tested but when the user is busy, stressed, walking, in a crowd, in a rush etc.
3) How is the iPod designed to be both 'usable-in-life' and 'usable-in-itself'?
My personal opinion is that the iPod was primarily designed around being 'usable-in-life' and therefore it was always going to perform pretty well 'in-itself'. One example is how you enable a user to scroll through menus, most devices just had up and down buttons but the iPod designers came up with the click wheel, where you don't have to press anything, simply scroll your finger around in a circle - clockwise for down and anti-clockwise for up. In design more buttons can often mean more confusion and this enabled there to be 2 less buttons on the iPod. The gesture is simple and instinctive and is described as a direct and clear mapping. These features make the iPod more 'usable-in-life'.
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