Abstract
In developing a product, usability is important. Consumers' actual usage often go across with the intended design of the product. In some cases, this goes beyond designers' intention, and goes to as far as user innovation. Customers might not be willing to wait until the proper product appears in the market. How these discrepancies (which are conceptualized as 'stickiness of information') can be resolved in the design stage? This article proposes to focus on the usage context and to translate contextual needs into customer functions. QFD( Quality Function Deployment) also translates feeling(sence) into actual product design. For the design of facilities and gears such as cell phones which are used collectively by many people, 'cultural probe' is a new and effective qualitative approach to explore the usage context.
