Contributions to Conferences

Including User Needs in Product Development

Abstract

The development of products that are accessible to
the largest possible group of users can be regarded as a major challenge for manufacturers of consumer products. It is therefore crucial, that the product development process is supported by practical methods and tools that can help incorporate these essential human factors in early phases of the development
process. Ergonomic evaluation and user testing with real users are user centred design methodologies often conducted by companies that are not only complex, but can be very time and cost-intensive.
As an alternative approach virtual user models (VUM) have been proposed for supporting the early phases of the product development process. In this paper we will present the modelbased design approach of the European research project VICON supporting inclusive design of consumer products particularly at the early stages of product development.