Early user involvement in research and design projects – A review of methods and practices

We describe methods and practices of early user involvement and human-centred design: how researchers and designers, in the ICT industry, attempt to cooperate with end-users, with the goal of making a better match with end-users’ needs and preferences. We describe six (dance) moves: participatory design, ethnographic fieldwork, lead-user approach, contextual design, codesigning, and empathic design. We focus on whose knowledge (of researchers/ designers or of end-users), and which kind of knowledge (about the present or about the future) is privileged. We discuss which method or which practice would be most appropriate for which kind of project, or for which goal.