Scenario-based design

Mascha van der Voort & Peter Paul Verbeek

Problem definition

Usability issues occur in interactions between users and products. This implies that, besides knowledge about the use context and about product impacts in relation to usability, we also need a better understanding of the interface between both. How can we conceptualize and anticipate the interactions between users and products, within which usability issues emerge?

Goals

This subproject aims to develop a method to anticipate the nature of interactions between users and products. Its ambition is to integrate insights in the ways in which products help to shape user behaviour with scenario-based approaches. Because designers will need to anticipate future situations, two kinds of scenarios would need to be taken into account: use scenarios, which describe how users interact with products; and future scenarios, which help to anticipate possible situations in the future.

Method and results

The subproject integrates two existing approaches: the approach of technological mediation as developed in philosophy of technology, and the approach of scenario-based design, as developed in design theory and methodology. Both these approaches have proven to be successful, and therefore the integration of both is very interesting, especially when expanded with the approach of future-oriented scenarios.

Innovation

The method that will be developed for anticipating user-product interactions is new, and has the potential to be useful and relevant in design practices that involve usability issues.

Validation

The project will result in a peer-reviewed article; acceptance will ensure the validity of the approach we envisage.