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How do designers represent to themselves the users' needs?
Françoise Darses1, Marion Wolff
1Laboratoire d'Ergonomie, CNAM (Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers), 41 rue Gay Lussac, 75005 Paris, France. francoise.darses@cnam.fr
Applied Ergonomics
|January 31, 2006
Summary
Designers
Area of Science:
- Ergonomics
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Product Design
Background:
- Ergonomic studies are crucial in designing new tools.
- User needs inference is key in product development.
- Mental representations influence design decisions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze how designers infer user needs during product design.
- To identify the nature of designers' mental representations of users.
- To understand the link between meeting types and user representation.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of design meetings.
- Qualitative study of designer-user interactions.
- Observation of the design process for a composite cutting machine-tool.
Main Results:
- Designers' mental representations of users vary.
- Users are conceptualized as subsystems, design principles, or scenario elements.
- The type of design meeting influences these representations.
Conclusions:
- Designer's mental representations significantly impact design choices.
- Diversifying meeting types can broaden designers' perspectives on operators.
- Promoting varied meeting formats enhances user-centered design outcomes.
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