Users, designers and dilemma's of expertise

Studies of user involvement have concentrated on the potential for users to contribute more to the design process. Especially for inclusive design processes, incorporating the expertise of potential users in the design process is a necessity. Designers have, however, their own expertise and it takes years of practice to become an expert designer. To solve this dilemma, insight is needed in how expertise of users relates to expertise of designers and how to make use of both in the design process. This research aims at indicating key factors in the relationship between expertise and inclusion, by confronting literature on design expertise with that on user involvement. We illustrate the dilemmas with an example in the construction industry. We conclude that to deal with the dilemmas of expertise, communication between different levels of expertise should be facilitated. More research is needed to develop support for such communication