user process Archives - Page 2 of 3

UFMEA vs. DFMEA

UFMEA vs. DFMEA, the power tools of concept development. What are the similarities and differences? How do they relate, and do we need both?

Using SIPOC to Get Started

SIPOC diagrams are a great first step for our team in understanding the key people and elements to our process.

Risk Barriers as Swiss Cheese?

There’s a model that can help us visualize and consider the different barriers to harm: The Swiss Cheese Model of Accident Causation. Learn what makes up this model and how ideas are represented. There are also different ways that the model is being used today. How can we design for controls, policies, or actions that are part of the use of our product but outside of our control?

Mistake-Proofing – the Poka-Yoke of Usability

How do we go about mistake-proofing our product design? As we’re looking at our user process, we can use a quality method that’s well-used in manufacturing production: poka-yoke (mistake-proof).

How to Self-Advocate for More Customer Face Time (and why it’s important)

There are many stories of design successes attributed to the right level of understanding of the customer. Product designers make decisions, daily, about how a product is going to look and perform. So, we need to really understand the customer. And, to really get the customer, engineers need to spend time with them. Sometimes, the business doesn’t want us to interact with…

Design for User Tasks using an Urgent/Important Matrix

We’ve collected all sorts of preliminary information about our users that we’re using for a new product design. We may be faced with so much data we’re not sure where to turn first, or what design feature is a priority. There’s a simple, 2-way matrix we can use to help us sort it all out: an urgent/important…

Types of Design Analyses possible with User Process Flowcharts

Flowcharting isn’t just useful for manufacturing processes. We can use them in lots of ways to help us with design of products and to identify quality characteristics. After all, products are used by people, and the way in which they use them is a process. compare ideal vs. actual flowcharts identify where there is disagreement…