Practice Abstract - Research and innovation

Involvement of end-users in need’s assessment

This abstract summarises practical experiences gained in the early development phase of the online knowledge reservoir platform, “EU Farmbook”.

Early end-user’s engagement and involvement are unavoidable for successful development and valuable results. As end-users have experiences with comparable solutions and hands-on knowledge of challenges to be solved, their inputs are important regarding future features of the platform. Moreover, their acceptance will encourage the end user’s adaptation later.

Therefore, user-centered design techniques are an essential part of agile development methodology to receive adequate information from end-users. The most often used engagement techniques in the need assessment phase are:

1. Surveys and interviews, focus groups;

2. Sketches’ and prototype validation by using user personas;

3. Joint stakeholder meetings, and design sessions.

User involvement is a multifaceted phenomenon with diverse success factors. The biggest risks are:

1. Starting end user’s involvement too late or/and in a not thoughtful manner;

2. Outreach to end-users is stalled without adequate intermediaries;

3. Overusing the common engagement techniques, leaving aside end user’s survey fatigue;

4. Communication with end-users and intermediaries is not enough clear, open, and/or regular;

5. Not enough profound analyses of the identified need to calibrate the future platform.

With careful planning, professional communication, and strong partnership these risks can be eliminated.

Source Project
Eureka
Completed | 2020-2022
Main funding source
Horizon 2020 (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
Geographical location
Belgium
Project details

Project Keywords