Evaluation of Early-Stage Design Concepts via Online Discussion: A Case Study

Abstract

User involvement through an online platform may have several benefits for evaluating early-stage design ideas. In this paper, we present a case where we supported two companies with gathering customers’ early feedback on service concepts. Our findings suggest that a scenario-based approach coupled with an explicit rewarding mechanism based on actual participation may prompt vivid discussions, reduce dropouts and lurkers as well as provide useful insight into the evaluation of services and elicit new ideas.