Describing user-centered designing: How design teams apply user research data in creative problem-solving

In an attempt to develop better understandings of the users of their products and the contexts in which those products will exist and function, designers often look to the expertise of social and behavioral researchers. Such interdisciplinary collaborations are expected to result in more "user-centered" design. In practice, however, the functions of user research and design are most often conducted separately and in sequence; researchers' findings are handed off to designers for application to the design project at hand. In these situations, communication across disciplines can be problematic. Social researchers may have difficulty understanding how designers are using the findings of their research. At the same time, designers generally have great difficulty articulating what part those findings play in the creative process of designing.;This research was conducted to help move the design community toward a description of design problem-solving activity that accounts for the productive contributions of user research data. The inquiry is based in an empirical study consisting of the observation and analysis of the activities of small teams working on a contrived design problem in a laboratory setting.;Protocols generated from three design sessions are examined. Linkographic mapping techniques are used in conjunction with reflective-practice analysis to identify "thematic paths" extending through the protocols and to describe the role that information from and about users plays in the social construction of the design problem and in the design teams' formulation of creative solutions to it. Conclusions are offered regarding when, how, and how productively design teams apply different types of user research data in their creative problem-solving activities.