online!
Fortune database entry no.
130
Book:
Magazin:
Project Description:
Internet Resource:
Area(s) of Application:
Product Development
Relevant Player(s):
Enduser, Other
Thematic Issue(s):
Methods / Strategies, Recommendations,
Methods/Strategies:
Focus Groups / User Groups, Questionnaires
User Requirements for Electric Wheelchairs
Assistive Technology on the Threshold of the New Millennium
Author:
Ingela Friman
Abstract:
The Swedish Handicap Institute has carried out a study to identify
the problems that the users experience with the existing technology
and its possibilities for electric wheelchairs. The study was
carried out according to the QFD model, which means that the
users were in focus. The problems were identified and analysed
by means of the focus group method. Relevant problems were transformed
into requirements. The focus groups defined a total of 90 new
requirements for electric wheelchairs. Many of the requirements,
24, concerned the seating comfort. A questionnaire concerning
the importance of the requirements was prepared. It was responded
to by 135 users, 30 occupational therapists and 17 technicians.
The focus group method proved very successful in coming up with
and analysing problems. These new requirements constitute the
basis for the develop-ment of a complement to the existing requirement
specification for the testing of electric wheelchairs by The
Swedish Handicap Institute. The results have also been used
to suggest further improvements of electric wheelchairs to the
manufacturers.
Editor:
Christian Bühler, Harry Knops
Publisher:
IOS Press
,
Amsterdam, Berlin, Oxford, Tokyo, Washington, DC
,
1999
ISBN / ISSN:
1 58603 001 9
Relevant Pages:
204--208
Name of Institution
The Swedish Handicap Institute
FTB-Homepage.
If you have got any questions, please feel free to write an email to:
webmaster@ftb-volmarstein.de
FTB is part of 
and scientific institution at 