Frontier Design: A Product Usage Context Method

Green, Matthew G.; Linsey, Julie; Seepersad, Carolyn Conner; Wood, Kristin L.; Jensen, Dan

doi:10.1115/detc2006-99608

Cited by 36 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Carefully define the characteristics of the typical customer, application, and usage environment. To define a typical usage context, we recommend the contextual needs assessment methodology introduced by Green and coauthors [14] to account for context factors associated with the application, the environment, and the customer. For the standard, two-person tent, the typical user would be a weekend camper, 15-30 years old, with very good health and physical fitness, who camps a few times a year.…”

Section: Experimental Methodology For the Empathic Lead User Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Empathic Lead Users: The Effects of Extraordinary User Experiences on Customer Needs Analysis and Product Redesign

Lin

Seepersad

2007

Volume 3: 19th International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology; 1st International Conference on Micro- And Nanosystem

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An experiment was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of empathic lead user analysis for uncovering latent customer needs that could lead to breakthrough product ideas. Empathic lead users are defined as ordinary customers (or designers) who are transformed into lead users by experiencing the product in radically new ways, via extraordinary user experiences. These extraordinary experiences may include modifications of the usage environment or the way in which the customer interacts with the product. A procedure for designing and conducting empathic lead user interviews is introduced in this paper. Results are reported for a trial study in which the empathic lead user technique is compared with verbal and articulated use interviews for a common consumer product (a two-person tent). Empathic lead user interviews are observed to have a significantly positive effect on latent needs discovery in the trial study, leading to a five-fold increase in latent needs discovery relative to articulated use interviews with a prototype and a twenty-fold increase relative to verbal interviews without a prototype. Empathic lead user interviews emerge as a promising tool for supporting innovation and breakthrough concept generation.

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Section: Experimental Methodology For the Empathic Lead User Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Empathic Lead Users: The Effects of Extraordinary User Experiences on Customer Needs Analysis and Product Redesign

Lin

Seepersad

2007

Volume 3: 19th International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology; 1st International Conference on Micro- And Nanosystem

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“…Design methods such as the Human Centered Design (HCD) Toolkit developed by iDEO have made a big impact on engineers better understanding their clients and working with communities in a compassionate and holistic manner [9][10]. Other techniques and information such as the nine design for the developing world principals identified by Mattson and Wood [11] a product use context method [12] validated in a developing world contexts [13], and the common pitfalls that engineers often fall into and methods of avoiding those pitfalls [14] are important and useful tools for design engineers. Further methods that are specifically important to the work presented in this paper are described below.…”

Section: Design For the Developing Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Application of Retrospective Customer Needs Cultural Risk Indicator Method to Soap Dispenser Design for Children in Ethiopia

Igleski

Bossuyt

Reid

2016

Volume 2A: 42nd Design Automation Conference

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We present here the design and analysis of a cost-effective soap dispenser that prevents bar soap theft in schools in developing countries. The intended region of deployment is within Ethiopia and surrounding areas. Lack of public hygiene is attributed to 1.4 million global deaths annually due to preventable diarrheal diseases. Using soap while washing hands is estimated to decreases death due to diarrheal diseases by half. Theft of soap from public wash stations, such as those found in schools, is believed to contribute to the spread of diarrheal diseases. Currently there exists no adequate cost-effective solutions to protect bar soap from theft although there appears to be a demand and there is a need for such a device. An undergraduate student mechanical design team in a sophomore design course at Purdue University was tasked with developing a soap dispenser that prevents theft of bar soap. The project prompt was provided by Purdue Global Engineering Programs’ Innovation to International Development (I2D) Lab. Students were instructed to complete the first step (Product Concept) of the Lean Design for the Developing World (LDW) method to develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The team then completed a retrospective analysis of the MVP using the Customer Needs Cultural Risk Indicator (CNCRI) method to determine potential shortcomings that may be identified in the second step (Validated Learning) of the LDW method. Several customer needs and their component and design solutions that need close monitoring during the second step of the LDW method were identified. The highest risk customer needs included: culturally appropriate design, aesthetic appeal, security, and durability. Based on the experiences of the design team, several important lessons were learned that can both be applied to improving the secure bar soap dispenser product and to the broader field of product design for the developing world. These lessons include: Customers in the developing world may be more concerned with cost than durability, cultural appeal of a device is highly dependent on first -hand experience and can easily be misunderstood or misrepresented, the LDW method is an invaluable tool in identifying customer needs that may be overlooked due to cultural and socio-economic differences. The use of the LDW framework and the CNCRI method in an undergraduate design group was found to be useful, viable, and valuable to both the undergraduate student learning outcomes and the development of a product that can be deployed to its intended market. Further development of an end-to-end tool chain is needed to better integrate product development for the developing world into mainstream engineering curriculum.

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“…Methods have been suggested to observe a product in use as a way of gathering raw data from customers. More recently, Green et al published three successive papers [31][32][33] on a frontier design method for product usage context, which is defined as a combination of application and environment in which a product will be used. A broader concept of product design context is constructed, consisting of three contexts that influence customer preferences: usage context, customer context and market context.…”

Section: Usage Context Literature In Engineering Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Choice Modeling for Usage Context-Based Design

Lin

Chen

Hoyle

et al. 2012

Journal of Mechanical Design

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Usage context-based design (UCBD) is an emerging design paradigm where usage context is considered as a critical part of driving factors behind customers’ choices. Here, usage context is defined as all aspects describing the context of product use that vary under different use conditions and affect product performance and/or consumer preferences for the product attributes. In this paper, we propose a choice modeling framework for UCBD to quantify the impact of usage context on customer choices. We start with defining a taxonomy for UCBD. By explicitly modeling usage context’s influence on both product performances and customer preferences, a step-by-step choice modeling procedure is proposed to support UCBD. Two case studies, a jigsaw example with stated preference data and a hybrid electric vehicle example with revealed preference data, demonstrate the needs and benefits of incorporating usage context in choice modeling.

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Frontier Design: A Product Usage Context Method

Cited by 36 publications

References 6 publications

Empathic Lead Users: The Effects of Extraordinary User Experiences on Customer Needs Analysis and Product Redesign

Empathic Lead Users: The Effects of Extraordinary User Experiences on Customer Needs Analysis and Product Redesign

The Application of Retrospective Customer Needs Cultural Risk Indicator Method to Soap Dispenser Design for Children in Ethiopia

Choice Modeling for Usage Context-Based Design

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