A priority-based approach for satisfying the diverse users' needs, capabilities and expectations: A universal kitchen design case
Author
Afacan, Yasemin
Demirkan, H.
Date
2010Source Title
Journal of Engineering Design
Print ISSN
0954-4828
Electronic ISSN
1466-1837
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Volume
21
Issue
2-3
Pages
315 - 343
Language
English
Type
ArticleItem Usage Stats
129
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259
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Abstract
Universal design process is a multi-constraint task due to many user requirements and the complexities caused by the interaction of the requirements in developing design solutions. Since all universal design requirements cannot be equally satisfied, a designer must determine the relative importance and implementation order of each requirement. Prioritisation of requirements is needed, not just to ignore the least important but also to guide designers while coping with dependencies, conflicts and trade-offs between multi-attribute requirements simultaneously. Thus, this study proposes a priority-based approach for satisfying diverse users' needs, capabilities and expectations in a design process conducted in a computer environment. The planning game technique and the analytic hierarchy process technique using a cost-value approach are the two techniques that are applied in prioritising the diverse requirements. The derived priority information is incorporated into a CAD interface with a developed plug-in tool. A universal kitchen design is chosen as a case study for the priority-based approach. The results of the acceptability studies indicate that the proposed plug-in tool is found useful, understandable, efficient, helpful and satisfactory in universal design process and can be developed for various architectural design applications.
Keywords
Analytic hierarchy processComputer-assisted design
Kitchen design
Planning game
Universal design
User needs