REDEFINING USER PERCEPTION - A METHOD FOR FULLY CAPTURING THE USER PERSPECTIVE OF A PRODUCT CONCEPT

摘要

When developing new products, it is crucial to consider user needs. The designer is not the user, and thus understanding what users truly need can be difficult. A key for understanding is to comprehend, how the users fundamentally perceive a product. Designer's and user's perceptions of a product differ, and with this in mind, we developed and tested a method for capturing user's and designer's perspectives of an existing product or service concept. As we tested this Participatory 3D modeling method, we discovered that the user perception of a product concept is not only the opposite of the one of the designer but in fact also much wider. Instead of concentrating on the product itself, the users ended up modeling a coherent whole - their overall experience relating to the product concept.