Development of a Technology-based Design Environment Focused on Improving User Experience

Computer tools usage has became one of the major trends in humanity and product design processes are not stranger to this situation. That is the reason why different computer tools (hardware and software) have been developed in order to support design tasks, enabling design processes to achieve more innovative solutions by offering more time to creativity. Nevertheless, the quantity and variety of available tools bring a high level of complexity and their articulation becomes an important need to be tackled, aiming to integrate hardware and software applications onto a single platform. This article describes the development of a collaborative design environment supported by the usage of computer tools for product design processes. The proposed model is based on the integration of different commercial hardware into a single platform. It is meant to support product design meetings of collocated design teams in a work station where all team members can interact with design concepts in a synchronous way. After the construction of a first functional solution, a redesign process was conducted to develop a platform where key aspects such as functionality, aesthetics and ergonomics were considered. Finally, the proposed solution is not only intended to perform as a stand-alone platform, but also as a networked workstation that will allow distributed design processes.