A Methodological Model for Life-Based Design

Technology should exist for bringing added value to people's life, thus improving its quality. Technology design, therefore, ought to consider human-technology interaction (HTI) in a much larger context than that of technology use. Comprehension of people's lives should be the real starting point of the design. In addition, we need to have well-grounded design methods and tools, which can make good use of our investigations of life and apply this knowledge to the design work. Life-Based Design (LBD) is a multi-dimensional and holistic approach, which integrates HTI design issues with the concepts in human life sciences and calls attention to a careful analysis of people's forms of life. This paper outlines a methodological model for Life-Based Design. The model has four main phases: form-of-life analysis, concept design, fit-for-life design and innovation design. It covers the main steps in designing concepts, which can be used in technical design