Assisting Designers in the Anticipation of Future Product Use

Abstract

In this paper, we present some theories sover past decades describing interactions between designers and users, and a state of the art of methods and tools to support these interactions in user-centred design. We discuss related methodological issues as a first step toward the introduction of new methods to assist usercentred design, to avoid uses of the product which might have undesirable consequences, while leaving margins allowing users to adapt to the situation and potentially introduce further innovations within the product. Lastly, we discuss the concept of unforeseen use and introduce creativity methods to help designers anticipate these uses.