How Designers conceive utility, usefulness and needs construction in design: an exploratory study with three contrasted designers’ profiles

Abstract

Usefulness is considered as a major criterion in ergonomics design. Our objective is to show that heterogeneity and diversity of designers’ profiles could lead to a partially shared representation of the utility and usefulness, methods and tools. To do this, we explore the representations of engineers, graphic designers and ergonomists on the utility, usefulness and needs construction in the design. The methodology developed for studying these representations is a categorical analysis of verbalisations produced during semi-structured interviews. We provide elements of understanding on the relationship between the designer’s profiles and the representations on the definitions of utility and usefulness, and on the needs construction process (design phases, methods, tools and stakeholders involved).