User Participatory Sketching: A Complementary Approach to Gather User Requirements

This paper proposes User Participatory Sketching as a complementary approach to user requirements gathering methods, applies the approach in an empirical study and investigates its potential benefits in the early interaction design stage. The findings from the case study suggest the proposed “User Participatory Sketching” can complement conventional user requirement gathering techniques in the aspects of: (1) tangibilizing communication; (2) contextualizing design concepts; and (3) unveiling underlying thoughts. The sketches created by the users may also facilitate design by providing recourses for idea exploration, documenting the users’ requirements in a visual way and allowing for further interpretations. Author