Design Methodology

Frederik Hoolhorst - UT

Manufacturers of electronic products and systems are more and more confronted with complaints from both consumers and professionals that are not related to technical or functional failures, but to an unexpected mismatch between actual product use and intended use by the manufacturer. Due to usability problems, manufacturers for instance notice an increase of customer service costs and dissatisfied customers.

In industry, industrial design engineers in particular are dealing with product usability aspects. It is one of their main tasks to make complex technology understandable and applicable for users. However, up till now it seems that no design methodology exists that incorporates the knowledge and tools (techniques, methods) with regard to use problems, the influence of user characteristics and (future) product impact into one framework that allows adaptation to the design practice its being used in. Therefore a methodology must be developed that incorporates above enounced aspects at the one hand and fits the applicability needs of design engineers at the other. In here ‘applicability needs’ refer to the typical way in which industrial design engineers approach design problems.

Main research question

How should a design method, which is at least applicable to the development of electronic products, look like in order to minimize usability problems?