Online User Feedback in Early Phases of the Design Process: Lessons Learnt from Four Design Cases

Online user feedback, collected by means of inter net sur ve y tools, i s a promising approach to obtain early user feedback on conceptsand early protot y p es. In t his study, the col le ction and utilization of online user feedback was investigate d in four desig n cases: allmaster student pro jects for indust r y clients invo lv ing se ven s tudent desig n ers. A total of 272 user par t icipants prov i ded quantitativefeedback. Half of t hese also prov ided qualitative feedback. One third of t he qualitative feedback was p erceived as useful by thestudent desig ners. T he main usefulness of the feedback was related to st r ate g i c concept decisions r ather t han t he inter action desig nof the early protot y p e. Le ssons lear nt are prov i ded.