An Interactive Tool for the Participatory Design of Product Interface

Abstract

The importance of participatory design (PD) is progressively increasing thanks to its capacity to explore a wide variety of concepts, thus increasing the opportunity to create a successful product. In fact the design process should not be a solo activity, as designers often need inputs and other points of view, especially from end-users. According to the ultimate idea of PD, end-users are actively involved in the various activities of the product development to ensure that their needs and desires are satisfied. This paper presents a novel approach to the participatory design of product interfaces in a user-centered design (UCD) process. The approach is based on an interactive tool that allows end-users to design custom user interfaces of household appliances taking advantage of their own needs and experiences. The tool incorporates the analytical and more abstract knowledge of the designers codified in the form of aesthetical, technological and manufacturing constraints (i.e., limitations in the number and geometry of interface components, a limited number of colors, a discretization of the area where interface widgets are placed). This solution allows the end-users to directly design their favorite interface without the interference of any other subject. Through an accurate analysis of the choices done by the users, the designers are able to access to the deepest level of the users’ expression in order to catch their latent needs and tacit knowledge. The tool has been designed in order to make possible to immediately perform usability tests on the designed interface by using a Mixed Reality prototype. The paper describes the development of the tool and proposes a methodology that has been specifically addressed to include this tool in a design process based on UCD principles. Both the tool and the methodology are presented through the description of a case-study related to the redesign of a washing machine dashboard. Experimental results show that the proposed tool can be an effective support to design product interfaces during PD sessions.

Operationally Intuitive Logistics Dashboards for Supply Chain Management in Oil and Gas Based on Human Cognition

“…Participatory design (PD) is based on the designers interacting during the all phases of the product development with the end-users. The purpose is to ensure the end product is tailored to the specific needs that have been identified through a corroborative dialog (Barbieri, Angilica, Bruno, Muzzupappa, & Asme, 2012). The principles work with PD the core approach is user centered design.…”

“…The principles work with PD the core approach is user centered design. In the search of articles with regard to user experience it is found that there is still lack of communication between the designer and the user for their end product (Barbieri et al, 2012) Further take into consideration the designers need the feedback coming from the people who are actually going to use the device or software program. By not properly interacting with the end users there is indications that show the perception of what the designers think the users are expecting and want differ from the actual need of the users.…”

“…By not properly interacting with the end users there is indications that show the perception of what the designers think the users are expecting and want differ from the actual need of the users. Literature shows there is a gap between what the designers think users need and what is the actual requisite (Barbieri et al, 2012). The aspect of human computer interaction has to be closely analyzed, in order to be able create a user friendly intuitive dashboard based on how the brain are wired.…”

Informing Early Design via Crowd-Based Co-Creation

“…Methods and tools for co-design have been developed in diverse contexts such as product interfaces [10], apparel design [11], and service design projects [12,13]. Co-designed products can be valuable in gaining a richer understanding of customer needs.…”