A Study on Users Search Behavior for Design Knowledge: the LEGO Players as Example
Chia-Ling Chang, Ding-Bang Luh · Journal of Convergence Information Technology · 2012
Recently, “user design” expanding the concept of open innovation, has become a popular topic. Theusers with higher design energy become important sources for the enterprises to advance values ofknowledge economy. More and more users search for needed design knowledge by themselves toimplement personal creative desires. Most studies on user design were based on the enterpriseviewpoint, users’ design knowledge and their search behaviors remain uncovered. This study proposeda research methodology to explore how users search for their needed design knowledge. The methodwas tested, using LEGO products as design object and sixteen highly-involved players as test subjects.The results showed that, Hands-on esthetic experience, Construction principle technique, andComponent appearance are the most essential knowledge attributes, and that Product peripheralmedia, Self-experience, and Fellow group network are found as key search approaches, for users. Withthe essential knowledge attributes and the key search approaches, a model of highly-involved users’searching approaches for design knowledge can be gained. The model was applied to two otherproduct cases. It can be observed that the model can help users to improve themselves to become betterdesigners, and the enterprise to gain insights of users as innovation resources and strategic partners.