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Fortune database entry no.
99
Book:
Magazin:
Project Description:
Internet Resource:
Area(s) of Application:
Product Development
Relevant Player(s):
Manufacturer, Enduser
Thematic Issue(s):
Methods / Strategies, Models
Methods/Strategies:
Focus Groups / User Groups, Usability Tests
Commercial Design For All (DFA)
Improving the Quality of Life for the European Citizen; Assistive
Technology Research Series, Volume 4
Author:
Henk T.J. Janssen, Herman van der Vegt
Abstract:
In the TIDE Homebrain project (DE3209) Design For All, as a
development principle, has been applied to develop home automation
applications. The paper will address the approach of DFA and
the application in a commercial environment. DFA is the process
of creating products, services, and systems that are usable
by people with the widest possible range of abilities, operating
within the widest possible range of solutions. With a large
variety of people in any generic user group (e.g. elderly, disabled,
children) it will become hard to design the optimum for all
possible users.
Focus on a certain user group is not enough, to involve these
groups actively in the development process is important. With
a selected group of people (6-8) participating in an usability
test of existing/competitor/concept products, very useful information
can be gained. After gathering the necessary information through
user involvement and basic knowledge, the development direction
should be guided by determining the unique added value of a
product through describing the product and cognitive comforts
that the future product must bring. Different modells of user
involvement in the development process are described in the
article.
Editor:
Inmaculada Placencia Porrero, Egidio Ballabio
Publisher:
IOS Press
,
Amsterdam, Berlin, Oxford, Tokyo, Washington, DC
,
1998
ISBN / ISSN:
90 5199 406 0
Relevant Pages:
84-87
Project Name:
TIDE Homebrain Project (DE3209) Design For All
Name of Institution
Indes Industrial Design Engineering BV
European Context:
Telematics Application Programme, Disabled and Elderly Sector,
3rd TIDE Congress, 23-25 June 1998, Helsinki
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