Proposal of a Tool to Formalize User needs for the Design of Experimental Systems

Abstract

This paper deals with the design of experimental systems, which are necessary to the study and understanding of new phenomena. Usually, the design of such systems depends on two persons, the researcher and the designer, who communicate to define requirements. Because the phenomenon under study is little known or unknown, the requirements are not precisely defined. This implies bad system quality, high costs and long production time. Our approach puts together the researcher and the designer. Existing product design methods do not take into account to user needs. That is why, in our study we came up with a methodology that will facilitate contact between the researcher and the designer by building a common ground on which both parties could optimally work. Our approach guarantees a good design from the first attempt. We simply based our proposed method on an experiment using a project brief which changes according to the evolution of the project itself. Such an approach takes into consideration all technical constraints that might be connected to the particular project at hand. We illustrate our approach with an example