Modelling (pre-)Design Activities With a Multi-Stakeholder Perspective

Abstract

The paper proposes an extension of the Gero’s Function-Behaviour-Structure (FBS) framework aimed at representing Need and Requirements and their relationships with the Function, the Behaviour and the Structure of an artefact. Needs and Requirements can be modelled as further types of variables to describe with the same formal approach of the situated FBS model the transformation processes which occur in the earlier stages of design, when the requirements still need to be specified. Furthermore the external world where needs are situated is split into the complementary perspectives of the different stakeholders influencing the adoption process of a new product, i.e. into buyers, users, beneficiaries and other outsiders. The extended model aims at supporting a more careful and detailed investigation of the processes that occur in the earliest stages of design, and specifically what happens in new product development activities. As carefully discussed in the introduction of the paper, such a shift in the designer’s perspective appears as a crucial step to build an efficient design methodology for innovation.