How to observe, share and apply in design process? Focusing on international design workshops as a case study

Abstract

These days, many people in design field make a great point of observing a user with regard to the user's circumstances. From the background, there are many researches in User Centered Design field about the role and value of the observing in design process. However, there have been a few researches about how to observe users and how to share and apply the observed results to design process more effectively. The purpose of this research is to clarify the following hypothesis: 'Observing "Physical factor", "Kansei factor" and "Cultural factor" from different viewpoints, and visualizing and sharing the observed results does not helps only to understand users' needs but also to apply the observation results to design process.' Therefore, in this research, we discuss 1) the role of observing from different viewpoints, 2) the validity of the following three factors, Physical factor, Emotion factor and Culture factor as the subjects of observation and 3) the reconfirming "TTS method" to visualize and share the observed results, based on several international design workshops as a case study. As the results, the observation from different viewpoints is effective to find out users' needs including a potential needs which is difficult to be found out through the questionnaire survey. And the method to observe Physical factor, Kansei factor and Cultural factor helps to understand users' situation and needs. Moreover, sharing the visualized observation results with TTS method becomes easy to understand others' thinking, and easy to apply the observed results to design process. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.