In this course, we intend to use the user-centred design approach as a framework in the product development process. There are different tools that are used in the analysis of user-centred design, mainly: scenarios, personas, and use cases. The scenario is typically used to represent and evaluate the use of a product. Creating personas will help to better predict the stakeholders behaviour, choices, likes and dislikes. The representation of the potential users help to focus on the important aspects and communicate them efficiently to stakeholders and the design team.

 

The first step is to take broad involving fundamental studies to gain information about the involved stakeholders or potential users. We used a specific interview technique to define the stakeholders' tasks and purposes.

 

In the second step, the current situation is translated in scenarios that describe the current situation as realistic as possible. During the design process these scenarios can be evaluated on their conformance with the real world. The ideas for product designs are ‘placed’ in these use situations. This results in ‘future use scenarios’. In this way a designer can critically reflect on the usability of his or her design. As the design becomes more detailed, the scenarios become more detailed as well. At the end the detailed scenario should resemble the actual situation that will occur when the product is introduced to the market.

 

This project is done in cooperation with Lisanne Bunk, Knoed Horck, and Marlies Waalkens. The client of this project is V.V. Rigtersbleek in order to design a communication platform.

 

The user-centred design approach is also applied at a research at RiverCare project in cooperation with MSc. ir. V.J. Cortes Arevalon. The goal is to reflect upon the potential usage use scenarios for the design process of a knowledge-base for river research. During this project, I created scenarios and user cases based on user profiles from interview. I am currently working on evaluating preliminary prototypes while we develop/test indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of the prototypes in an user test.