Abstract:

Philips Design is a global community of professionals, focused on delivering competitive value to its clients through design, and striving for innovation in both design services and in the solutions offered.This paper based on the 2003 research program at Philips Design in which the authors took part. It describes the approach in conducting qualitative research aimed at giving more value to design in our innovation process. In this approach conventional qualitative research methods are combined with design research methods to gather real-life data. A structural analysis enables visualization of the connections between people's values, their needs, and concrete solutions in the context of their everyday life. This information is translated into 'Personas', which are fictional characters based on real-life stories. Personas are used as a tool to communicate the research results to designers. This paper illustrates how the use of Personas improves the innovation process at Philips Design.