Next What are the limitations of user-based design?
After presenting the work at Fraunhofer and reflecting on the process, I realized that it was different from what many other designers and I usually work with. We did not start with the user.
A design process, as most of us know, starts with the user and its task could be to design...
The word “user” can mean anything from a single person to a whole cooperation. Your process always starts with human errors, needs, desires, and expectations. They are the first step in a user-centered design process or, as I would call it, a user-based design process.
But how did our process during the Fraunhofer project differ from a user-based design process?
When we go through a user-based process, we create different solutions for the needs of one target user based on different technologies. We have one user group and many possible solutions and technologies (Figure 3).
Figure 3 - Structure of a user-based process (Emrich, 2022)
Figure 4 - Structure of a technology-based process (Emrich, 2022)
But if we do not have a target user, then we must use the technology as a starting point and create different solutions that apply to the needs of different target audiences. Therefore, we only have one technology but many possible solutions and users (Figure 4).
I call this process technology-based and explore it during this thesis.