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Management of Scenarios : Proposal for the design of an inspirational scenario development-supporting tool

Hilbolling, S. (2010) Management of Scenarios : Proposal for the design of an inspirational scenario development-supporting tool.

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Abstract:Scenarios are concrete descriptions of people using technology to discuss and analyze how this technology could fit into their lives. They have proved to help the designers during the development of successful products. Despite its benefits (inexpensive, getting a better idea of the user, good communication tool), designers do not make use of scenarios in an effective way; scenarios use is still very heuristic. To help the designers during the use of scenarios we want to develop a tool that supports the development of scenarios. A literature study is done and the real design practice is analysed. Design agency Panton served as a starting point; the tool will be designed for their specific practice and is intended to be adapted later so other design teams can benefit from it too. From the interview with two designers of Panton we concluded that they don’t need a stimulating tool: they are already very experienced with the use of scenarios (and in particular with personas). Therefore we did not consider it useful to continue with development of a tool that helps them making better use of scenarios and decided to develop a tool that gives them inspiration during the design process concerning to scenarios development. This should make the use of scenarios more fun and useful. To find out what requirements the tool format must fulfil, a study on existing tools (e.g. IDEO Cards, input-output chart) is done. These tools all differ from each other in format. Also three concept tools are developed with inspiration from the existing tools. The selection of different formats of the existing and concept tools is evaluated with Panton. One of the concept tools is called the ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and turned out to suits Panton’s practice best. It exists of several discs with eight entries. Some discs are kept blank, so the design team can fill in their own ‘inspiration’, for example funny statements of colleagues. The other discs are divided by phases of the design process; each phase has its own disc with techniques that could be useful during the development of scenarios. By giving the top disc a big swing, it will turn and finally stop at a technique. The technique will be showed by the gap in the top disc. Designers can choose for themselves whether they will use this technique or turn again. The result of the interview (reactions to the different tool formats) are translated into a list of requirements for the tool format: • tangible, for example cards or a game; • all included options (techniques) should be visible or easy accessible; • less input or even random; • extra techniques can be added by the user; • for all phases of the design process.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:ET: Engineering Technology
Subject:20 art studies
Programme:Industrial Design BSc (56955)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/71963
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