Investigating - EdexcelIdentifying design opportunities

Identifying user needs

Identifying the needs and wants of an end user enables a design problem to be clearly formulated. This can be done through:

• observations
• interviews with a user or user group
• research into the limitations or conditions that your user may face, eg arthritis

Identifying these needs is important so that designers can identify any limitations to ideas and to help with the initial design ideas. Analysis of research and user feedback can lead to changes being made to the brief, such as a change in timescale or budget. The results of feedback, testing and product analysis should give the designer a good starting point to adapt, test, evaluate and improve their product throughout the whole iterative design process.