Conference article

Industrial design education and practice often sits on the fence between rational approaches as established in engineering design on the one side and free-spirited approaches familiar to fine arts on the other. Especially when in interdisciplinary contexts; this may cause some issues since industrial designers and their methods may be perceived as either too narrow-minded or too chaotic. One example of reoccurring surprise is the use of narrative methods such as personas and use case scenarios in systematic product development processes. Usually; collaborating engineering designers are sceptic in the beginning but later on accept the methods as means of communication and collaboration. However; narrative methods are not only means of team work and presenting concepts or solutions; but also help analysing the task; defining requirements and evaluating design proposals. This paper describes a study that aims at proving the impact of narrative methods in industrial design on an empirical basis.

Individual design knowledge; narrative methods; user-centered product requirements