3. Requirements and Specifications

Subjects involved in the design and production of goods have to build their decisions on market data. Collecting and organizing information is then the preliminary activity, necessary in understanding the complexity of the customer needs, often not “clear and distinct”, but on the contrary, expressed in a confused and interrelated way. Users can play an active role that must be taken into account: user-driven design versus user-centered design is a controversial position that it is worth analyzing. The design process starts by the identification of the needs of potential customers and proceeds with conceptual design, then embodiment and finally detail design, and the knowledge and satisfaction of user real needs is crucial in any phase. The tools developed for acquiring this knowledge are far from being formalized (i.e. mathematically formulated) but, nevertheless, are consistent and based on principles of logic, cognitive sciences and on the human experience of all the subjects that collaborate in the design process. This great work of interpretation and translation leads, at the end of the conceptual design, to fundamental documents which are called “product (or service) specifications” and which are the starting points for all the following design phases.