Engaging users in the early phases of the design process: attitudes, concerns and challenges from industrial practice

Product design is no longer solely driven by functionality. Usability and pleasure increasingly determine the success of a product. To address these emerging consumer needs, design literature offers various tools and methods for engaging end-users in the early phases of the design process. The study presented in this paper compares the state of the art in literature to design practice, represented by four different companies. During four separate studies the authors conducted extensive interviews throughout the companies to identify various user engagement methods, related challenges and pitfalls. The methods have been categorised according to the medium through which users provide information, namely what users say, what users do and what users make.

The result of this categorisation shows that companies primarily involve users by finding out what users say, using interviews and surveys. Only few occurrences of the other two categories were found. We identified the company culture as one of the limiting factors for engaging users in the design process. Companies prefer to rely on experience rather than end-user input, or in some cases simply do not acknowledge the importance of user engagement. Another limiting factor is the lack of awareness and knowledge regarding user engagement; companies do not know when to use which method or how to integrate the generated output in their design process. External factors, such as concerns about confidentiality of the new ideas and client-company relation are other factors that hinder the engagement of users in the early phases of the design process. The paper concludes with a set of opportunities that can be addressed to improve user engagement in the early stages of the design process.