Abstract:

Abstract The importance of the “user-centered design approach” in design researches has been increasing especially since the 1990s. Within this approach, the users participate in the design process by using different techniques and the user contributions are reported in the literature. It is assumed that the more method stories are shared, the more it will be possible to generate new and more effective alternative ideas for such design processes. This study examines the concept development process, which is shaped by user-centered research via a case study. The case study entitled as the “Toy for preschool children project”, used a usage scenario and students collected data through literature review, interview and observation techniques. In the early stages of the project, students focused on problems rather than form development, and they were able to reach unique syntheses depending on satisfactory situation analyzes utilizing user research. As a result, in this project, the user-centered approach was found to be favorable to develop new products and to discover new concepts.

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