Kujala, S. (2008). Effective User Involvement in Product Development by Improving the Analysis of User Needs. Behaviour & Information Technology, 27(6), 457-473.
Format: Peer-reviewed article
Type: Research — Non-experimental
Experience level of reader: Fundamental
Annotation: Careful attention to consumer needs can improve product quality and usability. However, consumer input should be gathered early in the product development process, and should involve a thorough examination of the end user's context and values. The author tests an information gathering and analysis approach in two case studies, which are detailed in the article. The proposed methodology resulted in a higher level of requirements quality, which in turn led to the generation of higher quality products.
Setting(s) to which the reported activities/findings are relevant: Federal lab, Large business, Small business (less than 500 employees), University
Knowledge user(s) to whom the piece of literature may be relevant: Manufacturers, Researchers
Knowledge user level addressed by the literature: Organization
This article uses the Commercial Devices and Services version of the NtK Model
Barrier: Field studies are often seen to be time-consuming, providing a vast amount of unstructured data that is difficult to use in development.
Case studies
Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 6.3
Carrier: To overcome processing problems that technically-oriented developers may have with processing written descriptions of user needs, present the information in the form of user-needs tables instead.
Case study
Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 4.11, Step 2.2, Step 1.1
Tip: Effective user involvement has shown to yield a variety of benefits: 1) Improved quality of the system; avoidance of costly features that the user did not want or cannot use; 3) improved levels of acceptance; 4) greater understanding of the system by the user resulting in more effective use; and 5) increased participation in decision-making within the organization.
Case studies
Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 4.11, Step 2.2, Step 1.1
Barrier: Challenges in developer/user collaboration include: motivating the developers, identifying appropriate users, obtaining access to users, motivating the users, and deriving benefits from user contacts when established. (Case studies)
Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 3.1, Step 4.11, Step 2.2, Step 1.1