DRAMA - Scenario Methods for User Centered Product Concept Design

DRAMA - Scenario Methods for User-Centered Product Concept Design (UCPCD) is a multidisciplinary research project, in which UCPCD’s scenario-based working methodology and process are reinforced with methods of devised theatre. The ultimate goal is to make the human voice loud and clear in the new product development to create humane products. This is achieved by improving current working methods, tools, and processes.

In DRAMA we study possibilities to use devised theatre methods with UCPCD to create a new, rich and more profound approach to user centricity and to create dramatic scenarios, a new form of scenarios. In DRAMA this is done by comparing several devised theatre and UCPCD methods and defining the relevant application areas for each one.

The following methodological areas of UCPCD will be studied. 1. User research: user research methods, collecting user narratives and other dramatic compositions, and notation of user narratives. 2. Analysis of user data: methods for analyzing user narratives and interpreting user needs. 3. Product or service concept design: techniques for utilizing user narratives as a basis for design, writing the manuscript of a scenario on the basis of user narratives, the form and output of scenarios. 4. Concept evaluation: evaluation of concepts with users using devised theatre and dramatic scenarios.