Integrating user-centered practices in configuration systems development: Framework and conceptual modelling

Developing configuration systems to support complex and highly engineered products can be a tedious task. Given the complicated nature of the process, both researchers and companies tend to overlook user interaction until later stages of the configuration process. This paper adopts a user-centered design process to develop configuration systems, emphasizing the difference between the customer and the configurator user.

Moreover, we discuss the importance of making a clear distinction between the product, service, or process configured and the configuration system to be developed. In line with this, we propose a framework to empathize with the user in configuration system projects. Besides, we suggest a new user-experience tool to reflect user-centered outcomes in the conceptual modeling phase of configuration systems.

We integrate the method into a consolidated conceptual model, the so-called product variant master. Finally, we test the procedure in a building construction configurator project which must deal with very versatile products. As a result, the configurator’s profitability is enhanced by easing and promoting its use, optimizing the time spent on the configuration, and increasing efficiency by minimizing potential wrong choices.