1

AnalysisandApplicationofQualityAssuranceinUserCenteredDesign:Acase

study

AlessandroBrun*,MatteoMarioSavino**,AntonioMazza**

*PolitecnicodiMilano,DepartmentofManagementEngineering,ViaDurando,10-20100,Milano,Italy**UniversityofSannio,DepartmentofEngineering,PiazzaRoma,21–82100,Benevento,Italy

Abstract:Whendiscussing the topicofquality froma"modern"pointofview, "customer satisfaction” is

arguablyoneofthetopcriterionofhighproduct/servicequality,sothatonlycompanieswhoseoutput(be

it a product or a service - or both) really satisfies end users are the ones with high quality. Traditional

product design ideology and methodology is experiencing innovation and reformation. A new design

ideology named “user-centered design” (UCD) is spreading and raising growing interest and recognition.

Unlike conventional design approaches, UCD gives users top priorities throughout the whole design

process,asitsultimatepurposeistomeetusers’requirements.Thepresentworkaimstoproposeaquality

assuranceprocessbasedontheUCDparadigm.TheUCDprocessmainlyincludesthreephases(namelypre-

design planning, design presentation, design evaluation and implementation), and quality control of the

product design is to be enforced throughout thewholeUCD process. The proposed control process has

beentestedinacasestudyofportablephotoprinterdesign,usingUCDforreferenceandQualityFunction

Deployment for technical means. The case study, which will be discussed in the paper, will show the

application of a new, effective quality control model for product design. Thanks to the real

application,basedonasurveyoncustomerneeds,andappliedtoallstagesofUCDprocess, feasibilityof

thesuggestedapproachisvalidated.Thepaperwillconcludewithacriticaldiscussionontheapplicabilityof

suchmethodologytodifferentfields.

Keywords:User-CenteredDesign,QualityFunctionDeployment,DesignQuality,QualityAssurance

1. Introduction

Qualityhasbecomeakey factor foranenterprise toachievesuccess,aswellasasignificant issue in the

economy evolution of each country (Fynes and De Burca, 2005) while the relationship between design

qualityandcustomersatisfactionandbusinessperformanceisalsoaddressedinseveralempiricalstudiesin

the fields of qualitymanagement andmarketing (Karipidis, 2011). Dr. Joseph Juran - the famous quality

managementexpertinAmerica-predictedthatthe21stcenturywouldbeacenturyofquality,whichwould

becomenotonly themosteffectiveweapon for companies tooccupymarket share,butalsoapowerful

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driving force for the development and improvement of society(Han et al., 2007). There are a variety of

perspectivesfromwhichquality isviewedaccordingtotherole itplays inthevariouspartsofabusiness

organization;inparticular,thefiveperspectivessingledoutbyGarvin(1984)inhisseminalpaperwerethe

judgmentalperspective,product-basedperspective,Userbasedperspective,value-basedperspective,and

manufacturing-based perspective. The “User Based” is a modern definition of quality, derived from Dr.

Juran’s viewpoint (Han et al., 2007): product quality is its “fitness for intended use”, that is, basically

“meetingorexceedingcustomers’expectations”.That isalsothedefinitionofqualitybeingacceptedand

applied in this article. This definition covers two aspects of implications: i) usage requirements and ii)

satisfactionlevel.Userswouldalwaysputforwardsomerequirementsforthequalityoftheproductsthey

areusing,andthoserequirementsmaybeinfluencedbysomefactorssuchasobject,location,timeandso

forth.At thesametime,usersatisfactionwith theproduct is reflected in termsofproductperformance,

using effect, economic characteristics, etc. Failure to take into account the customers’ view and needs

duringproductdesignwill result in lowquality.Consequently,effectivecontrolonproductquality in the

earlydesignphasefromuser’spointofviewwouldbeoneoftheareasworthyofstudy(Lin,2005).Quality

engineeringindesignphaseaimsatgraspingneedsfrommarketandusers,andtakingthemintoaccountin

product design process. The concept of customer satisfactionmeans that the entire process of product

development should be customer-centered and the requirement analysis should be carried out from

customers’ perspective. To help companies achieving such goals, tools – such as Quality Function

Deployment(QFD)-andapproaches–likeUser-CenteredDesign(UCD)–havebeendevelopedinthelast

decades.

Asthecoretechniqueofqualityengineeringduringproductdesignstage,QFDhasachievedgreatsuccess

inqualitymanagementanddevelopmentofindustrialproducts.Beingregardedasapowerfulweaponfor

companies to successfully implement the customer satisfaction strategy, QFD has attracted widespread

concern by international quality academics. UCD is a design philosophy claiming that product strategy

shouldconsidermeetingcustomers’needsasthebasicmotivationandultimatepurposeduringtheinitial

stagesofproductlifecycle.Asthecoreofusabilityengineering,UCDhasbecomeahottopicinthefieldof

computerinterfaceallovertheworld(Hu,2009).However,theconceptofUCDisstillquite“philosophical”

whenitcomestoapplicationsintheindustrialworld,asithasnotbeentranslatedyetintoclearguidelines

givingspecificdirectionsforindustrialproductdevelopment.

Consideringtherelevanceofthetopic,alongwithsaidmeritsandlimitsofUCD,thepresentpaperaimsat

providing a practical implementation of UCD in the case of a portable photo printer design, using the

thoughtsandideasofUCDforreferenceandQFDfortechnicalmeans.Thepaperisstructuredasfollows:a

literaturereviewonmainworktopics inpresented insection2.Section3 focusesonresearchobjectives

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and methodology, section 4 describes the quality control process adopted for the application case of

section5.Thelastsectionhighlightsmeritsandlimitsofthepaperandindicatesfutureresearchdirections.

2. UCD,QFDandKanoModel

In an attempt to pursue customer satisfaction as a guarantee of long-term success, many firms are

increasinglyimplementingqualitymanagementmethodologiesandtools,andembracingtheTotalQuality

Management philosophy. Arguably, themost important, and often initial stepwhen implementing TQM

inspiredinitiatives–suchasSixSigma–islisteningtothe“VoiceoftheCustomer”,orVOC(Brun,2011;Lai,

2003). Chen and Yan (2008) pointed out that especially during the early stages of product concept

definition, the involvement of users plays a critical role: for a successful product development it is

paramount tounderstandcustomer/userneedsandtoaddress themquicklyandaccurately (Hongetal.,

2011).Wecanthereforedefinedesignqualityasthedegreetowhichaproductmeetsthecustomerneeds

ofaspecificmarketsegment(Freiesleben,2010).Inthefollowing,wewillanalyzetools,philosophiesand

methodologieshelpingcompaniestoguaranteedesignqualitythroughoutthenewproductdesignprocess.

UCD is a design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and constraints of (current and

prospect)usersofaproductaregivenmaximumattentionateveryphaseofthedesignprocess.UCDcan

becharacterizedasamulti-stageproblemsolvingprocessrequiringdesignerstoi)analyzeandforeseehow

usersarelikelytouseaproduct,andii)testthevalidityoftheirassumptionswithregardstouserbehavior

inrealworldtestswithactualusersaswell.UCDistypicallydeployedinthreestages(DongandFu,2003):

a)strategyanduseranalysis,b)designandassessment,c)executionandassessment.Atthebeginningof

product lifecycle,users’needssatisfaction isstrategicallypositionedtobethebasicmotivationandfinal

objective;duringthefollowingdesignprocessanddevelopment,allthedecision-makingcriteriaarebased

on feedbacks coming from theusers. Inorder to supportpractical implementationofUCD, anumberof

specifictoolshavebeenproposed.Consider,e.g.,theStarLifeCycle,SpiralandWaterfallmodels,depicted

inFigure1(Sharpetal.,2002):theyfullyreflectthecharacteristicsofuser-centeredandsuggestthecentral

positionofuserindesign.

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Figure1:StarLifeCycleModel,SpiralModel,andWaterfallModel

QFD is a “method to transform user demands into design quality, to deploy the functions forming

quality,andmethodsforachievingthedesignqualityintosubsystemsandcomponentparts,andfinallyto

specify elements of the manufacturing process”. It has the two-fold purpose “to assure that customer

needsareproperlydeployedthroughoutthedesign,buildanddeliveryofanewproductandto improve

theproductdevelopmentprocessitself”(AkaoandMazur,2003).QFDtransformscustomerneeds(i.e.the

VOC) into design requirements, component characteristics, production and quality control requirements

(Cristiano et al., 2000; Govers, 2001; Chang and Wu, 2002). The key success factors of the QFD

methodology are that it is customer-centered and oriented towards customer satisfaction, supports

systematic deployment of a product’s function and characteristics, and fosters inter-departmental

teamworkandcollaboration.Threeresolutionmodelsarewidelyacknowledged(Chang,2006):i)Japanese

QFDmodel (Xiong and Shindo, 1996), ii) ASI QFDmodel (Xu, 2003) and iii) Goal/QPC QFDmodel. QFD

models proactively explore not only the requirements that customers explicitly conveyed, but also

unspokentypesofneeds,sotomaximizecustomersatisfactionandavoiddissatisfaction.Notwithstanding

itsmanymerits,QFDhassomewell-knownlimitationsalso,themainonebeingtheunderlyingassumption

thatCustomerSatisfactionimproves linearlywiththeincreaseoftheproductperformance.Asnotallthe

needsareshowingthesamelinearbehavior,specificmethodologies(suchastheKanomodelandtheGrey

SystemTheory)havebeendevelopedtoimproveanalysisandhandlingofcustomerneeds.

Kano Model defines 3 types of user requirements (Kano, 1984): i) must-be requirements, ii) one-

dimensionalrequirementsandiii)attractiverequirements(Figure2).Must-berequirementsareconsidered

asthemost“basic”productfunctionsorservices,oftencorrespondingtounspokencustomerneeds.When

must-be requirements are fulfilled, they contribute little to customer satisfaction while vice versa the

customerwillbeverydissatisfied.One-dimensionalrequirementsrepresentthe“typical”productfeatures,

and contribute to customer satisfaction in a linear way.Attractive requirements are related to product

attributesor servicebehaviors that totally gobeyondusers’expectationsand thusmakeusers surprised

andexcited.Whentheproductdoesn’thavethesefeatures,userswon’t feeldissatisfied;butoncethese

featuresexist,userswouldbeverysatisfied.

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Figure2:KanoModel

Kanomodelcouldbeexpandedwithothertypesofrequirements (ChenandChuang,2008): i) indifferent

requirements, i.e. users are not interested in them; ii) reverse requirements, i.e. different users have

different,orevendiametricallyoppositeexpectationstowardsoneattribute;iii)questionablerequirements,

i.e.therearesomemisunderstandingfromusersorfeedbackmistakes,orthequestionsareputforwardin

awrong stage.When user requirements have to be classified, two opposite questions (i.e. forward and

reversequestion)areset:customersareaskedabouttheirfeelingandattitudeswhentheattributeexists

or not. According to users’ answers, user requirements can be classified according to the categories

identified by Kano, e.g. using the widely adopted clustering approach advocated by Matzler and

Hinterhuber(1998),showninTable1.

Table1:MatzlerandHinterhuberClusteringApproach

3. Researchobjectivesandmethodology

UCDprocessesandmodelsaremostlyappliedinsoftwaredevelopmentandinteractionsdesign,yetalsoin

industrialproductdesign“User-centered”isshowingagrowingrelevanceandfrequentadoption.Withthe

present paper, we propose the introduction of a quality assurance process in a User-Centered product

designcontext.SuchanewmethodologywouldsupportthedesignteamincollectingtheVOCandatthe

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sametimeto take intoaccountcustomersatisfactionasameasureofdesignquality, thusguidedby the

goalofdevelopingproductsthatmeetuserneeds.

Thedevelopmentof ourmethodology is groundedon twounderlying assumptions: i) “fit for purpose” /

matching user needs is one of themost important success factors in new product development, and ii)

insufficientmarketanalysis isoneofthemostcommoncausesofnewproductfailure.Consequently,the

process of product planning and design should be driven by customer needs. In order to obtain and

maintain competitiveness, enterprises should carry out a rigorous market research, and continuously

interactwithusers,tobeabletodesignproductsbettermeetingcustomerrequirements.

TheproposedmethodologywillsupportcompanieswillingtointroducetheideasandconceptsofUCDinto

the design of industrial products. Based on the fact that UCD has been developed and proved to be

beneficial in computer industry (Zheng, 2006), aUCDapproach could be introduced in industrial design,

and integrated with quality engineering, to develop a new approach to design. In this way, companies

adopting the methodology could achieve benefits such as correctly understand user needs and seize

marketopportunities,andimproveproductdesignquality,ensureultimateproductquality.

The development of said methodology was based on an extended literature review, and supported by

empiricalevidencehavingbeenvalidatedthroughacasestudy.

4. DevelopmentofqualitycontrolprocessinUCD

Inthefieldofproductdesign,somerelativelyfrequentlyusedUCDmethodsare:ethnographyobservation,

user roles, user interview, survey questionnaire, focus group, QFD, scenario-based design, participatory

design, usability test, eye-movement analysis, etc. The various tools provide similar benefits, supporting

companiesto:a)identifyuserneeds;b)createadatacollectionsystem;c)speedupinformationaccessand

interpretation; d) explore design opportunities from the perspective of end users; e) avoid judgmental

decisionsindesignprocess(Hu,2009).

The entire UCD process could be divided into three phases: pre-design planning, design presentation,

designevaluationandimplementation.InFigure3,theentireprocessisdepicted,andthespecificstepsin

whichtheabovementionedtoolscouldbeusedarehighlighted.

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Figure3:UCDprocess

Throughout the whole process, the degree to which user needs are fulfilled is typically regarded as a

measureofdesignquality.Thus,correctlyaddressingtheuserneedsateverystep–aswillbeexplainedin

detailsinthenextsubsection–isameantoimplementqualityassuranceinnewproductdesign.

4.1 User-BasedMarketSegmentation

Different users have different dominant needs, so the consumer market is not a unified homogeneous

market, but can be divided into user group subsets with common requirements and characteristics. At

presenttheapproachestomarketsegmentationaremainlybusinessperspectiveanduserperspective(Xu

andTang,2008).Thisworkprimarilystudiestheuser-perspective-basedmarket.Themarketsegmentation

variables based on users consist of 4 aspects (Gan, 2002): geographical factors, population statistical

factors, psychological factors and behavioral factors characterized by some frequent variables (Freud,

1994).

4.2 Characteristicsdescriptionoftargetusers

Usersshouldbeclassifiedthroughasetofcharacteristics.Onefrequentlyusedclassificationmodelisbased

onthethreeelementsoftargetusers:a)agefeatures;b)lifeattitude;c)fashionsensibility(LiaoandZhu,

2010); each triplet of age/attitude/sensibility representing one possible (virtual or actual) user group.

Usuallyoneproductgroupcouldbetargetedtoseveralusergroupsatthesametime.

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4.3 Acquisitionandclassificationofuserneeds

Theacquisitionandanalysisofuserneedsisthemostcritical,andalsothemostdifficultstepinthequality

controlprocess inUCD impactingonthedeterminationofdesignelements inQFD.Figure4presentsthe

processofuserneeds recognition.Theprocedure foruserneedsacquisitionstarts fromthedefinitionof

targetusers, followedbytheselectionandapplicationof tools forneedsrecognition,suchas interviews,

focusgroups,andobservationofusersbehavior.

Figure4:acquisitionandclassificationofuserneeds

GriffinandHauser(1993)showedthattheneedsrevealedinatwo-hourfocusgroupdiscussionareequal

tothoseobtainedfromtwoone-hourinterviews,whereasthecostofinterviewisusuallymuchlowerthan

that of a focus group. This is the reason why the interview is the most frequently used user-needs-

acquisition method, and we will therefore adopt it in our case study. User needs collected through

interviewsarethensortedandclusteredusingtheAffinityDiagramtechnique.Aftertheacquisitionofvalid

userneeds,an importance level is tobeassigned toeachof them.This isdone throughaquestionnaire

withfive-pointLikertscaleanswers.

4.4 ConversionfromuserneedstodesignelementsbasedonQFD

Oncetheuserneedshaveaccuratelybeencollected,QFDhelpsin:a)rankingtheweightofuserneeds;b)

calculatingthecorrelationvaluebetweenuserneedsanddesignelements.SoQFDcouldberegardedasa

conversiontoolbetweenuserneedsanddesignelements.

a. Rankingtheweightofuserneeds

Tointroducenon-linearcorrelationsneedsandproductperformances intoQFD,manyscholarsstartedto

study how to integrate QFD and Kanomodel (Tan and Shen, 2000; Sauerwein et al., 1996; Sireli et al.,

2005).Inparticular,weadoptedthefollowingapproachto:

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• Classify user needs according to Kano model, dividing them in: M (must-be needs), O (one-

dimensional needs), A (attractive needs), I (irrelevant needs), R (reverse needs), and Q

(questionableneeds).

• Forthei-thneed,calculatetheproportionofusersconsideringitM,O,AandI(respectively𝑈!,𝑉!,

𝑋!and𝑌!),andcalculate𝐹! (theincreasingrateofusersatisfactionwhentheattributeexists)and𝐷!

(thedecliningratewithouttheattribute),anditcanbeobtainedthat

𝐹! =!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!;𝐷! =

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sotherelativeweight𝑤! ofthei-thuserneedis:

𝑤! = 𝑚𝑎𝑥𝐹!𝐹!!

!!!,

𝐷!𝐷!!

!!!

Theuserneedwillbeclassifiedapplyingtheprincipleof“relativemajority”(ofusers),butwhenthe

relativepercentagesof twoclassificationsareequal (or very close tooneanother), anda clearly

definedcriteriaisneeded,wewilladopttherelativeusersatisfactioncoefficientratio(expressedas

𝐹!/𝐷!)andclassifytheneedaccordingtothethresholdinTable2.

𝑭𝒊/𝑫𝒊 Typeofneeds

>1.1 Attractiveneeds

0.9~1.1 One-dimensionalneeds

<0.9 Must-be-needs

Table2:thresholdsfortherelativeusersatisfactioncoefficientratio

b. Calculatingthecorrelation

Thecorrelationvaluebetweenuserneedsanddesignelements is calculatedby collecting theopinionof

severalexperts. Incaseofdivergingopinions,methodologiessuchasDelphiortheAnalyticalHierarchical

Process(AHP)couldbeappliedtofindaconverginganswer.

4.5 Designproposalevaluation

After obtaining the “quality controlling points” of the design process, the designer team could generate

severalalternativedesignproposals;thevariousproposalswillthenbeevaluatedandthebestoneselected

accordingtotheusers’perspective.Heretheuserneedssatisfactiondegree𝑆!" isintroducedwiththeaim

to examine the degree towhich the design proposal fulfills user needs. In particular, specific evaluation

criteriaare:

! Judgmentof𝑆!! accordingtothefollowingtable;

Degreetowhichdesignproposalsfulfilluserneeds 𝑺𝑲𝒊

Verywell 1

10

Preferably 0.75

Fairly 0.5

Reluctantly 0.25

None 0

! Calculationofweightedevaluationscoreforuserneed𝐷!:

𝑓!" =𝑊! 𝑆!"!

!!!𝑚

Where𝑊! istheweightofeachuseneed,m isthenumberoftargetuserswhoparticipate inthe

grading;

! Calculationofthetotalscore𝑓!fordesignproposalX:

𝑓! = 𝑓!"

!

!!!

wherenisthenumberofitemswhichregarduserneedsasgradingindicators.

Theproposalwithahigherscoreisthedesignthatcouldbetterfulfilluserneedsonthewhole,providing

basisforproposalsevaluation(eventhoughothercriteria,suchasthecostofthedifferentproposals,might

beusedtomakethefinaldecision).

5 Applicationinarealcase

TheproposedqualitymethodinUCDisappliedinadesignprojectofanewportablephotoprinterthrough

three steps: i) During pre-design phase, carry out elaborate analysis on target users and their needs, ii)

convertuserneeds todesignelementseffectively,withexplicitdesignquality controllingpoint indesign

processandiii)Determinepreliminaryproductdesignproposal,showtheproductdesigneffecttousersin

formsofdraftand2Dsketchdrawings,preparingfoundationsforsubsequentdesignwork.

Step1.Marketsegmentationanduserneedsacquisition

Sixfactorsareconsidered:Region,mobility,age,gender,occupationandincome.Inthiswayitishelpfulto

understandandgrasptheconsumermarketasawhole,aswellaspositiontargetusergroups.Inparticular,

theprojectteamaddressedtwoclustersofusers:

1. Potentialusers:Universitystudents,themightyandmainconsumptionforcesinthefuture,whose

attitudesandtastesplayadeterminantroleinthedevelopmentdirectionofprinterinthefuture;

2. Maintargetusers:Newgraduates,officewhitecollars,payingcloseattentiontonewproducts in

digitalmarket,seemedasthemajorconsumergroupsofportablephotoprinter.

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Userneedsacquisitionwasperformedthroughinterviewstotargetusertounderstandthegeneralfeatures

suchasvalueconcepts,expectations,beautyappreciationandpreferencesofuserstowardsportablephoto

printers. In this way, the general requirements and expectations of users when they use or purchase

portablephotoprinterswasobtained.The intervieweeselectionwasbasedon thepreviousdefinitionof

targetusers,regardingtheyouthmenandwomenincitiesof19~30yearsoldrelativelyconcernedonthe

fashion trend of digital products; having purchased or used portable photo printer, or relatively familiar

with this kind of products. After that, the researchers had comprehensive awareness of the using

conditions, use intentions, value positioning, expectation conditions andaesthetic standardsof users for

portablephotoprinters,andtheywereabletoextractalistofuserneedsandorganizeithierarchically(in

theso-called“CriticaltoQualitytree”,CTQtree)usingaffinitydiagram.

A furtherquestionnairewasadministered tousers inorder tocalculate the relativeweightsof customer

needs.Results(analyzedbymeansofthestatisticalsoftwareSPSS)aresummarizedinTable3.

Table3:relativeimportanceofneeds,asresultingfrommarketsurvey

Since the actual importance degree of user needs is not linear, it is necessary to revise the user needs

importance degree combinedwith Kanomodel. First of all, the user needs are classified based on Kano

modelandtheclassificationmannerproposedbyMatzlerandHinterhuber;resultsareshowninTable4.

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Table4:classificationofneedsfollowingMatzler&Hinterhubermethod

AsisshowninTable,forthe9thitem“Smallsize,portable”,thedifferencebetweentherelativefrequency

percentages of “Must-be needs” and “One-dimensional needs” is very small, so the relative user

satisfactionratioiscalculatedas0.71,whichislessthan0.9,thusclassifyingthisitemintomust-beneeds.

Theotheruserneedsofportablephotoprinterareclassifiedaccordingtotheirhighestrelativepercentage.

Step2.Conversionfromuserneedstodesignelements

Theextractionofdesignelementsisaverytechnicalprocessrequiringdetailedknowledgeinthefield.This

hasbeendone involvedprofessionalprinterdesigners,ergonomicsprofessionalsandotherpractitioners.

The matrix of relationships between user needs and design elements has been determined in a panel

session with the experts. Results are summarized in Table 4, where “◎” represents strong correlation

degree (equals to 5), “○” represents medium correlation degree (equals to 3), and “△” means weak

correlationdegree(equalsto1).

Table5:resultingQFDmatrixfortheportableprinter

Step3.Designplansevaluationofportablephotoprinter

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According to the importance rank of design elements, the design team designed two portable photo

printers (labeled as Plan A and Plan B) to choose from where 20 target users were selected as the

evaluators.Thedesignerselaboratedthedesignconcept,specificationparameters,productcharacteristics

andsoonfacetoface,andtheusersgavetheirgradesinaccordancewithwhethertheproductmettheir

needs,withthesatisfactiondegreedividedinto5levels,from“Verywell”to“Notatall”.Tableshowsthe

finalgradevaluesofthetwoplansafterthesynthesisofweightingandaveragingofusergrading.

Table6:comparisonbetweentwoalternativedesignproposalstakingintoaccountuserview

Ascanbeseenfromtheevaluatingresults,theoverallgradesofplanAishigherthanthatofplanB,even

thoughtheperformanceofAisnotsuperiortothatofBforeverysinglefactor.Thecomparisonofthetwo

plansintermsofvariousindicatorsisshowninFigure6.

Figure5:comparisonbetweentwoalternativedesignproposals

Theprinting performance of planB is superior to that of planA,which can also be concluded from the

specificationparametersof theplans, since theconfigurationof theproductBobviouslyexceeds thatof

productA,which,atthesametimeimprovesusersatisfactiontosomeextent.Thisiscoincidentalwiththe

classification that theperformance-relevantuser needsmostly belong toone-dimensional and attractive

needs.Becauseofmoreadvancedconfiguration,planBhasahighermarketreferencepricethanplanA,

whichaffectsusersatisfactiontoagreatextent.Thisisbecausethetargetusersare“Universitystudentsof

19~30yearoldandnewgraduates”whoarerelativelyprice-sensitive,whichiscloselyrelatedtothetarget

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marketbeingselectedatthebeginning.Inaddition,boththetwoplanshavehumanizeddesignintermsof

operability,withwhichtheusersarerelativelysatisfied.Intheperspectiveofappearance,userspreferplan

A, which gives them the feelings of “small, exquisite, fashion and succinct”. When it comes to

interestingness,planBisevenbetterduetoitsadvancedsystemconfiguration.

6 Conclusionsandresearchoutlooks

Amodernqualitydefinitionhastotakeintoaccounttheuserperspective;underthisassumption,theUCD

philosophy developed. Based onQFD, this work proposed an originalmethodology of quality control in

product design. The whole process encompasses: pre-design planning, design presentation and design

evaluation. It isalwayshighlightedthat theextenttowhichcustomerneedsaresatisfied isameasureof

productdesignquality,aiming,onturn,atreachinghighlevelsofcustomersatisfaction.

Thefollowingstatementssummarizeourwork:

" Discusses onwhy companywilling to achieve good level of customer satisfaction has to ensure

qualityoftheproductdesignprocess,byusingappropriatetools;

" IntroducestheconceptofUCDwitharelevantliteraturereview;

" Weproposedaqualityassuranceprocess,basedontheUCDparadigm,consistingintheapplication

of several quality management tools in the 3 sub-processes of the User-centered product

development;

" KanoModelisusedtocomplementthewellknownQFDlimitation,ofassuminglinearbehaviorof

customersatisfaction;

" The methodology is tested and validated in a real case, regarding the development of a new

portablephotoprinter.Theprocessisusedtodirectandcontrolthequalityoftheproductdesign.

Inthelightofthequalitycontrolpointsafteranalysis,designalternativesaremappedout.Thefinal

planisdeterminedafterassessmentjudgedbytheextentthatcustomerneedsarefulfilled.

Although attempting to shed new light on the paramount topics of user based view of quality and

measuringdesignquality,thepresentmanuscript istobeconsideredaworkingpaperastheresearchon

thetopicisstillongoing.Amongtheapparentlimitsofourwork:

- firstof all, taken independently, themethodologies adopted (QFD,Kanomodel, theMatzler and

Hinterhuber method) are not innovative; it is the overall framework that is a somehow new

contribution; for this reason, the selection of the specific techniques and tools is critical for the

successoftheoverallmethodology,andinthefutureprobablyothertoolswillbeincludedinthe

frameworkandimplemented;

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- theapplicationtoonesinglecaseisnotenoughtoprovethatthemethodologycouldactuallywork

indifferentsectorsandindifferentconditions–soseveralotherapplicationcasesarerequired;

- finally,basedonthesinglecasestudy,wewerenotabletoassessnumericallythebenefitscoming

fromthemethodologyapplication.

Therefore, future research directions are devised: the overall framework will be expanded to include

severalother“classic”qualitymanagementtools;themethodologywillbetestedinanumberofcasesof

designofnewconsumergoods.Furthermore,atooltomeasurebenefitsresultingfromtheapplicationof

themethodologywillbedevelopedandappliedtoeverysinglecasestudy–itwillmeasurebenefitsbothin

a qualitative way (increased customer satisfaction, perception of the design team of having been

supported,…)andinaquantitativeway(lowercosts,shortertimetomarket,lessfailures,…).

Asafutureextension,themodelcouldbeappliednotonlytothedesignofnewproductsbutalsotothe

interestingfieldofservicedesign.

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