Abstract

Many methods have been developed to help designers to understand users and their situations. These methods vary widely and are suited for use in different situations, but designers often find it difficult to select the most appropriate for their needs, often leading to inappropriate method use.

In this talk, I will describe some of our findings on how designers think about design methods (particularly user methods). This has led to the development of a framework to help designers to choose the most appropriate user methods. I will describe the main aspects of the framework and then lead an interactive discussion about how it can be presented to designers in ways that are visual, attractive, simple and flexible. This last is still work-in-progress so feedback, suggestions and ideas are very welcome.