User-Designer Collaboration during the Early Stage of the Product Development Process

.................................................................................................................................... i TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................................... iii STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP ............................................................................ vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ix Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 1.0 Introduction.......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Research problem................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Research question ................................................................................................ 5 1.3 Aims and objectives ............................................................................................. 5 1.4 Overview of thesis ............................................................................................... 6 1.5 Summary .............................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 2: USER INVOLVEMENT ............................................................................ 9 2.0 Introduction.......................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Understanding user involvement in general....................................................... 10 2.2 User-centred design............................................................................................ 12 2.3 Participatory design............................................................................................ 15 2.4 Design for experiencing ..................................................................................... 19 2.5 User involvement in information system design................................................ 21 2.6 Discussion .......................................................................................................... 22 2.7 Summary ............................................................................................................ 23 Chapter 3: COLLABORATION................................................................................. 25 3.0 Introdction.......................................................................................................... 25 3.1 Collaboration...................................................................................................... 25 3.2 Strategies for improved collaboration................................................................ 26 3.3 Strategy one: allowing direct access .................................................................. 28 3.4 Strategy two: working with ambiguous contexts ............................................... 29 3.5 Strategy three: developing shared experiences .................................................. 31 3.6 Summary ............................................................................................................ 35