INTERACTIVE EVOLUTIONARY DESIGN FOR RECOGNICING CUSTOMER NEEDS AND WISHES
DS 48: Proceedings DESIGN 2008, the 10th International Design Conference, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Year: 2008
Editor: Marjanovic D., Storga M., Pavkovic N., Bojcetic N.
Author: Tiainen, T.; Ellman, A.; Syrilä, A. L.
Section: Advanced design methods
Page(s): 705 - 712
Abstract
In a product development process, designers try to understand what customers need and want. Especially in the case of personalized products, it is important that customers can describe what they want. For supporting the discussion between professional designers and customers we created a prototype of a tool based on evolutionary design and utilized with a genetic algorithm. This prototype is the Table Generator. We organized a user test in a furniture fair. The results of the test are promising. Most of the users thought that the Table Generator is a supporting tool in negotiation with professionals, furthermore, about half of the test users found that the Table Generator gave them new ideas about alternatives.
Keywords: interactive evolutionary design, genetic algorithm, product design, user’s needs, participatory design, creative tools