Analysis of user needs for the re-design of a wheelchair

The identification and translation of customer needs early in the design process is a major challenge for product design researchers. Some needs are explicit and customers can state them very clearly. Other needs are implicit, so customers cannot express them, e.g., those pertaining to the affective and emotional sphere. In this work, we describe the methods most commonly used to capture explicit and emotional customer needs, and the traditional ways in which they are used. Moreover, an integration of QFD and Kansei engineering, a simplification of Kano methodology, and a new attribute weighing methodology based on the “choice time” are discussed for the design of an innovative postural seat system for patients affected by mental retardation.