User-centered design and niche-market development: Engaging Students in the design and merchandising

Understanding customer\u27s needs is a prerequisite for effective design and market development in fashion industry. In common fashion curriculum, future fashion designers and merchandisers acquire market research methods focused on the target market\u27s geographical and demographical characteristics as a means to identify customer\u27s needs. However, the conventional market studies overlook customer\u27s unconscious needs since customers often do not recognize what they want or even can expect from apparel product. In order to identify customer\u27s conscious and latent needs, a relatively newer user-centered approach called empathic design employs close observation and systematic analysis of customer\u27s experiences in their own environments (Leonard & Rayport, 1997). This approach\u27s unique properties including close observation and deep empathy for customers\u27 experiences has great potential to provide fashion students opportunities to practice for user-centered design and niche-market development. Thus the purpose of this study is to apply the empathic design approaches, serving as a pedagogical method, into practicing critical thinking process to develop adaptive wear and identify potential niche-market for the customers in special needs

Customer-involvement in new service developments: Insights from Spanish tourism firms

This paper examines customer-involvement in service innovation developed by Spanish tourism firms. This is done on the basis of a broad array of management tools targeted at engaging customers in new service developments (NSD) in an effective and systematic way. A multiple case study is performed across eight innovative tourism firms in Spain. Results show a limited awareness of formal customer-involvement methods. Some firms also underline how clients may lack the necessary knowledge to be co-participants of NSD. Innovation networks are highlighted as an important source of knowledge on new business opportunities.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

User experience in cross-cultural contexts

This dissertation discusses how interdisciplinary UX teams can consider culturally sensitive design elements during the UX design process. It contributes a state-of-the-art meta review on UX evaluation methods, two software tool artifacts for cross-functional UX teams, and empirical insights in the differing usage behaviors of a website plug-in of French, German and Italian users, website design preferences of Vietnamese and German users, as well as learnings from a field trip that focused on studying privacy and personalization in Mumbai, India. Finally, based on these empirical insights, this work introduces the concept culturally sensitive design that goes beyond traditional cross-cultural design considerations in HCI that do not compare different approaches to consider culturally sensitive product aspects in user research

Idea Generation Through Empathy: Reimagining the ‘Cognitive Walkthrough’

Idea Generation Through Empathy: Reimagining the ‘Cognitive Walk through’Students in engineering are required to evaluate their products against user requirements, but often, these requirements are abstracted from the user or context of use, making it difficult for students to empathize with the eventual user of the product or system they are designing. In previous research, we have demonstrated the use of Design Heuristics to encourage divergencein ideation at initial stages of the design process. Design Heuristics—a tool based on award-winning products and design activities of engineers and product designers (e.g., Yilmaz &Siefert, 2011)—has been extensively validated through empirical studies, shown to increase ideation capacity and flexibility. Use of this method has been focused primarily on early stage ideation, with less support for students who are iterating on or evaluating more developed concepts. Our proposal focuses on extending the student’s understanding of the problem space by generating empathy with the end user and context. Through this empathetic positioning, the Design Heuristics method can be used to lead to a richer space for additional idea generation.Typical uses of Design Heuristics in an engineering classroom context (e.g., Daly, et al., 2012)have not been situated in the context of use, thus operating at a level of abstraction above the user, context, or sociocultural milieu. One of the more significant insights to come out of the design community is the importance of problematizing the context and a rich understanding of the user and importing that information back into the design process (Beyer & Holtzblatt, 1996;Young, 2008). So while ideating with Design Heuristics allows for questioning on the component or feature level, traditional framings of this method have not encouraged the interrogation of the larger problem framing, or potential use cases and contexts within that framing.Usability testing methods such as contextual inquiry (Beyer & Holtzblatt, 1996), mental models(Young, 2008), critical incident analysis (Flanagan, 1954), and cognitive walk throughs (Spencer,2000; Wharton, Reiman, Lewis, & Polson, 1994) have been developed to foreground situated,user-centered perspectives of the design. We analyzed several of these user-centered methods common in other disciplines and then adapted the cognitive walk through for use in an engineering education context. This method was revised and extended to maximize empathy with the end user and context, in order to use these insights to promote a more situated form of idea development using the Design Heuristics cards.The cognitive walk through is a method to evaluate usability in software engineering (Spencer,2000), and includes: defining inputs, convening the walkthrough and working through definedaction sequences, recording critical information, and iteratively revising the product. For an engineering context, we adapted this method (Figure 1) to encourage targeted idea generation,while relying on less structured action sequences, with the “user story” as the primary form ofwalking through the concept from a user perspective. Figure 1. Revised cognitive walk through process.In this paper, we present several case studies of students using this method to expand their notion of situated use, demonstrating how it may have utility for importation into engineering contexts.Our early testing has indicated that this method stimulates empathy on the part of the student for the design context they are working within, resulting in a richer narrative that foregrounds problems that a user might address, which recursively encourages targeted idea generation. References Beyer, H., & Holtzblatt, K. (1998). Contextual design: Defining customer-centered systems. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, Daly, S. R., Christian, J. L., Yilmaz, S., Seifert, C. M., & Gonzalez, R. (2012). Assessing design heuristics for idea generation inan introductory engineering course. International Journal of Engineering Education, 28(2), 463.Flanagan, J. C. (1954). The critical incident technique. Psychological Bulletin, 51(4), 327-358.Spencer, R. (2000). The streamlined cognitive walk through method, working around social constraints encountered in a software development company. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 353-359). New York, NY: ACM Press. Yilmaz, S., & Seifert, C. M. (2011). Creativity through design heuristics: A case study of expert product design. Design Studies,32(4), 384-415. doi:10.1016/j.destud.2011.01.003Young, I. (2008). Mental models: Aligning design strategy with human behavior. Brooklyn, NY: Rosenfeld Media.Wharton, C., Rieman, J., Lewis, C., & Polson, P. (1994). The cognitive walk through method: A practitioner\u27s guide. In Usability inspection methods (pp. 105-140). New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons

Empathic voice assistants: Enhancing consumer responses in voice commerce

Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled voice assistants (VAs) are transforming firm-customer interactions but often come across as lacking empathy. This challenge may cause business managers to question the overall effectiveness of VAs in shopping contexts. Recognizing empathy as a core design element in the next generation of VAs and the limits of scenario-based studies in voice commerce, this article investigates how empathy exhibited by an existing AI agent (Alexa) may alter consumer shopping responses. AI empathy moderates the original structural model bridging functional, relational, and social-emotional dimensions. Findings of an individual-session online experiment show higher intentions to delegate tasks, seek decision assistance, and trust recommendations from AI agents perceived as empathic. In contrast to individual shoppers, families respond better to functional VA attributes such as ease of use when AI empathy is present. The results contribute to the literature on AI empathy and conversational commerce while informing managerial AI design decisions

Organizational transformation through service design : the journey towards human- and customer-centricity

Viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana palvelumuotoilu ja sen hyödyntäminen on yleistynyt tuotantoteollisuudessa. Ihmis- ja asiakaslähtöisenä kehittämismetodologiana palvelumuotoilu tuo mukanaan yhteiskehittämiseen pohjautuvia luovia ja iteratiivisia toimintatapoja, joissa kehittämistä lähestytään ulkoa sisäänpäin -strategioilla. Tällaiset ketterät menetelmät, tekemällä oppiminen ja kokeilut innovoinnin yhteydessä voivat kuitenkin törmätä ristiriitoihin olemassa oleviin työpaikkakulttuureihin, innovaatiokäytäntöihin ja organisaatioiden prosesseihin nähden. Näin voi käydä erityisesti konteksteissa, joissa vahvat insinööripohjaiset ja teknologialähtöiset toiminta- ja kehittämiskulttuurit kukoistavat. Viimeaikaiset tutkimukset ovat osoittaneet, että organisaatioiden, jotka alkavat soveltaa ja integroida palvelumuotoilua kehittämis- ja liiketoimintakäytäntöihinsä, tulee valmistautua laajamittaiseen muutokseen. Tämä johtuu siitä, että sosiaalisena innovaatiokäytäntönä palvelumuotoilu vaikuttaa myös siihen, miten organisaatio muuttuu ja kehittyy sisäisesti – ei pelkästään uusien palveluiden kehittämisen kautta. Näiden havaintojen valossa tässä väitöskirjassa väitetään, että kokonaisvaltaisen ja laajamittaisen organisaatiomuutoksen eli organisaatiotransformaation ymmärtämisessä palvelumuotoilun näkökulmasta on tutkimusvaje. Tarvitaan enemmän ymmärrystä siitä, miten palvelumuotoilua soveltavat organisaatiot muuttuvat. Tällä tutkimuksella pyritään kuromaan umpeen tätä aukkoa tutkimalla seuraavaa päätutkimuskysymystä monikansallisen tuotantoteollisuuden kontekstista: Mitä organisaatiolta vaaditaan, että työpaikkakulttuurin transformaatio voi tapahtua kohti ihmis- ja asiakaslähtöisyyttä mahdollistaakseen sisäisen palvelumuotoilun tehokkaan integroinnin? Tämä on artikkelipohjainen väitöskirja, jossa tehdään tutkimusta muotoilusta (engl. research into design). Tämän tieteidenvälisen tutkimuksen tavoitteena on yhdistää muotoilun tutkimus johtamis- ja organisaatiotutkimukseen. Interpretivismi on tämän väitöskirjan filosofinen näkökulma, jonka mukaisesti tutkimuksen informanttien kuvaamia kokemuksia tulkitaan. Tutkimusmetodologiana on tapaustutkimus, jossa on käytetty erilaisia laadullisia tiedonkeruu- ja analyysimenetelmiä. Kolme julkaisua, jotka ovat kahdessa kirjassa julkaistuja kirjalukuja, muodostavat tämän väitöskirjan pohjan. Julkaisu I kuvaa, kuinka tutkimukseen osallistuva organisaatio kehittyi vastaanottavaisemmaksi palvelumuotoilulle empaattisena kehittämisen lähestymistapana. Kymmenen vuoden ajanjaksoa (2005-2014) tarkasteltiin organisaation muutosten ja kehityksen ymmärtämiseksi, joiden pohjalta organisaatio päätti investoida palvelumuotoon. Julkaisu II tarkastelee sitä, kuinka sisäinen palvelumuotoilu (engl. in-house service design) on tukenut tutkimukseen osallistuneen organisaation työpaikkakulttuuria muuttumaan kohti ihmis- ja asiakaskeskeisyyttä. Tässä julkaisussa tarkasteltiin sisäisen palvelumuotoilun hyödyntämisen ensimmäistä neljän vuoden ajanjaksoa (2014-2018). Julkaisu III esittelee sitä, mitkä ovat organisaation haasteet, joita ilmenee, kun palveluiden kehittämisessä käytetään sisäistä palvelumuotoilua. Julkaisun II lisäksi myös tässä julkaisussa tarkasteltiin sisäisen palvelumuotoilun hyödyntämisen neljää ensimmäisen vuoden ajanjaksoa. Julkaisuissa I ja II esitetään havaintoja, jotka liittyvät ihmisten yksilöllisiin ja organisaation muutosnäkökulmiin. Nämä liittyvät muutoksiin yksilöiden asenteissa, ajattelutavassa ja uskomuksissa sekä organisaation visioiden, strategioiden, arvojen ja organisaation paradigmojen muutoksiin. Julkaisu III esittelee havaintoja ihmis- ja asiakaslähtöisten normien ja käytäntöjen puutteeseen organisaatiohaasteiden näkökulmasta. Kaiken kaikkiaan tämän väitöskirjan puitteissa tehty tutkimus tuo uutta tietoa muotoilututkimuksen, johtamisen ja organisaatiotutkimuksen aloille. Väitöskirja esittelee uuden teoreettisen viitekehyksen yksilön ja organisaation muutosnäkökulmista. Nämä muutosnäkökulmat ovat edellytyksiä organisaation työpaikkakulttuurin muuttamiseksi kohti ihmis- ja asiakaslähtöisyyttä, mikä puolestaan mahdollistaa sisäisen palvelusuunnittelun tehokkaan integroinnin.Over the past decade, service design has become more common in the manufacturing industry. As a human- and customer-centric development methodology, service design brings along co-creative, outside-in development strategies, which are iterative in nature. However, such learning by doing and experimenting while innovating may collide with the existing working cultures, innovation practices, and processes of organizations, especially where strong engineering-based and technology-oriented cultures thrive. Recent research has shown that organizations that start applying and integrating service design into their development and business practices, should be prepared for an organization-wide transformation. This is due to the fact that, as a social innovation practice, service design also impacts how an organization changes internally, not just through developing new services. In light of these observations, this dissertation claims that there is a research gap in understanding organizational transformation, from the perspective of service design. More understanding is needed of how organizations that apply service design, transform. This research aims to bridge this gap, by exploring the following primary research question, from the context of a multinational manufacturing corporation: What is required for an organization, to transform its working culture towards human- and customer-centricity, in order to enable the efficient integration of in-house service design? This is an article-based dissertation, which follows research into design approach. The aim of this interdisciplinary research is to connect design research with management and organizational studies. Interpretivism serves as the philosophical perspective used to interpret and understand the experiences described by the study’s informants. The research methodology was to conduct a case study, where a variety of qualitative data collection and analysis methods were employed. Three publications, all of which are book chapters published in two books, constitute the basis of this dissertation. The publication I discovered how the participating organization evolved into being more receptive to service design as an empathic development approach. A time span of ten years (2005-2014) was studied to understand the changes and evolvement, that led the organization to invest in service design. The publication II studied how in-house service design has supported the participating organization’s working culture, to transform towards human- and customer-centricity. The early use phases of the first four years 2014-2018 of inhouse service design were studied. The publication III sought to understand, what the organizational challenges are that occur when in-house service design is used in service development. Along with publication II, this publication also looked into the first four years of in-house service design use in the organization under investigation. Publications I and II present findings, which relate to individual and organizational change aspects. These are connected to changes in attitudes, mindsets, and beliefs of individuals, in addition to changes in organizational visions, strategies, values, and organizational paradigms. Publication III presents findings from the perspective of organizational challenges related to the lack of human- and customer-centric norms and practices. Overall, the research conducted within this dissertation adds new knowledge to the field of design research, management, and organization studies. The dissertation presents a new theoretical framework of individual and organizational change aspects, to transform the organizational working culture towards human- and customer-centricity, in order to enable the efficient integration of in-house service design

Innovation by design: a programme to support SMEs.

Small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs)1 are generally clear on the need for innovation; however they are very often less clear on how innovation can be achieved. One possible reason for this may be because of a lack of a culture supportive of innovation within their business. Developing appropriate tools for SMEs to allow them to develop a sustainable innovation culture is a core activity for the Centre for Design & Innovation (http://www.c4di.org.uk). This paper describes how SMEs have been assisted through the application of design thinking to develop their own innovation cultures through a programme of workshops and one-to-one support. This paper strives to look beyond the rhetoric behind design thinking in order to critically evaluate the techniques and approaches that have proved to be of particular value when working with SMEs

Designing creativity tools to support business innovation.

There are a wide range of approaches and organizations, which have the common aim of supporting SMEŸs to deliver new products and services. This paper examines the various approaches which have been taken and in particular describes the work of The Centre for Design & Innovation (http://www.c4di.org.uk), Aberdeen, which has been established to provide innovation support for small to medium sized companies in Scotland. The centre has adopted a user-centered approach that encourages companies to consider their core values, identify opportunities based on their customers needs and encourage new thinking based on a re-evaluation of the companyŸs innovation culture. This paper examines the philosophical basis for the development of the new centre and subsequent methodology that has been adopted. It also describes a number of resources that have been developed to help SMEŸs with their innovation processes. This is based on a user-centered, ethnographical strategy. Serious play is used to help companies shift their perspective which in turn leads to new insights. Recognition of the barriers to creative thinking enables companies to develop an innovation culture that promotes continuous innovation and development. Prototyping methods are described that help companies develop and evaluate concepts and encourage co-design and interdisciplinary working