Fixed and mobile innovation through user representation: two case studies

Meeting user needs is fundamental to successful product development. Designers may start with a technology and seek to make it useable. They may also start with user needs and go in search of technology solutions. This paper describes and analyses two projects that are commercially successful examples of innovation focussing on the user environment: one for fixed line telephony, the other for mobile telephony. It concludes that there are a range of factors, such as competent partnerships, negotiation of compromises and effective community engagement that sustain successful innovation that meets user needs and supplier business cases.