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This study aims at elaborating a User-Centered Design (UCD) procedure that permits to include end-users (people who have knowledge on how the product could be used) in the innovation process. This research is led with Assystem, an engineering and innovation consulting company, along with the energetic design of one of Assystem's innovative products.
This paper consists in a literature review of the innovation process and of methods and tools related to a UCD approach. The proposed procedure is inspired from the Contextual Design method but adapted to a goal of technical performances maximization. It includes a dual inquiry phase, an interpretation phase, a creativity phase and an evaluation phase. The tools used are described in the paper as well as the results drawn from testing the procedure with an industrial case study.
