UPREN USED – User, product and environmental influences on usability and emotional product design

本研究计划书描述了先前项目的计划延续。在本研究项目的第一阶段，开发了一种方法来获得有形的产品设计建议，基于生理和态度的用户需求。由于可用性和情感产品设计之间存在的不平衡，需要一种结构良好和客观的方法来确保主观上用户友好，同时物理上合适的产品设计是必要的。特别是针对残疾人用户的产品，往往注重产品的可用性，而不考虑用户的主观需求。因此，可能会有负面的产品相关的用户污名化，导致拒绝或不使用该产品。处理失衡问题的一个根本挑战是失衡所包含的相互冲突的目标。例如，虽然智能手机的轻薄设计会使人联想到优雅，但更坚固和更厚的外壳将更有利于其可用性。为了确保愉快的用户体验，产品开发人员必须在这种冲突情况下做出面向用户的决策。这需要可靠的知识，从用户的角度来看，情感或可用的设计是否被认为是更重要的，允许关注更重要的方面。在这个研究项目中，外部影响（如用户，情况）的可用性和情感的权重的影响将被彻底调查，以促进冲突的设计决策在紧张的领域的双重用户集成，并进一步推进技术产品开发和用户体验的联锁。因此，将开发一种方法来考虑特定的用户，产品和环境特性作为可用性和情感产品设计权重的外部影响因素，从而首先在理论层面上以结构化的方式识别相关的影响因素。定量的实证研究，他们遵循，以从根本上探索和模型的强度和/或个别因素的可用性和情感产品设计之间的关系的重要性。新获得的知识最终为开发预期方法提供了基础。然后将其纳入第1阶段的现有方法并进行评价。

This research proposal describes the planned continuation of previous project. In phase 1 of this research project, a method to derive tangible product design recommendations regarding physiological and attitude-based user needs was developed. The need for a well-structured and objective method to ensure a subjectively user-friendly and at the same time physically suitable product design is necessary due to existing imbalances between usability and emotional product design. Especially products for disabled users often focus on a product’s usability without taking the subjective needs of the users into account. As a result, there can be negative product-related user stigmatisation leading to rejection or non-use of the product. One fundamental challenge in dealing with imbalances are the conflicting goals they contain. While a thin and slim design of a smartphone would associate elegance, for instance, a more robust and thicker housing would be more beneficial for ist usability. To ensure a pleasant user experience, product developers have to make a user-oriented decision in such conflictual situations. This requires reliable knowledge about whether an emotional or usable design is perceived as more important from the user's perspective, allowing to focus on the more important aspect. In this research project, the impact of external influences (e.g. user, situation) on the weighting of usability and emotionality will be thoroughly investigated in order to facilitate conflicting design decisions in the tense field of dual user integration and to further advance the interlocking of technical product development and user experience. Therefore, a method will be developed to consider specific user, product and environmental characteristics as external influencing factors on the weighting of usability and emotional product design, whereby relevant influencing factors will first be identified in a structured manner on a theoretical level. A quantitative empirical study of them follows in order to fundamentally explore and model the strength and/or significance of individual factors on the relationship between usability and emotional product design. The newly acquired knowledge ultimately provides the basis for developing the intended method. It will then be integrated into the existing approach from phase 1 as well as evaluated.