Integrating user perceptions into product design

You want to take user perceptions into account when designing your product, so as to adapt it to human perceptual characteristics. To integrate perceptions into design, we need to understand them. Whatever the sensory modalities considered (e.g. vision, hearing, touch), human perceptions, through the sense organs and associated mental processes, are complex, and many attributes of the product and context can interfere and influence judgment. This fact sheet presents a methodology for developing and structuring this knowledge. It details the steps involved in measuring, analyzing, characterizing and modeling perceptions.

Understanding perceptions and integrating them into product design will enable you to :

• better control perceived product quality;

• stimulate innovation by taking into account users' perceptive abilities;

• better size the product offering and avoid perceptual "bugs".