Two Heads Are Better than One: Co-Creation as a Resource for User Interface Design of CAx Systems
Maximilian Tandi, Eva-Maria Jakobs · 2019
This paper addresses the development of user-friendly CAx systems as a participatory process of user (customer) co-creation with technical communication experts. The study investigates how different formats of co-creation support the co-creation process and the role of technical communication experts in the process. The co-creation process includes workshops, user tests and interviews with CAx software developers (software suppliers) and workers using the software on the shop floor (manufacturers). The results show that the close collaboration of experts with a different professional background and interest in the subject has a high potential to increase the quality of software systems by co-creation. The direct dialogue and switching between perspectives provide valuable need and solution information. In this context, technical communication experts can play a decisive role if they are trained to act both, as mediators between stakeholder groups as well as experts for usability issues.