Implementing Design Tools in Capstone Design Projects: Requirements Elicitation Through Use of Personas
Beshoy W. Morkos, Joshua David Summers · 2010
This paper discusses the difficulties encountered when a team of Mechanical Engineering students attempt to elicit requirements during their Capstone Design Project. Specifically, the students attempt to elicit requirements for handicapped individual, users of whom they could not empathize with. To assist the students, they are introduced to the use of personas as a design tool. Through the use of such a design tool, make significant gains in their requirement elicitation efforts. Furthermore, the students are able to possess a much greater understanding of the design problem and the users of the device. Upon completing the project, the students are surveyed on their experience to elicit requirements and the difference encountered when making use of a design tool. The findings in this paper encourage students to explore the use of design tools and for professors to make aware to students the host of design tools available for their use.