Surrogate users: a pragmatic approach to defining user needs

It is often difficult for practising interaction designers to engage with real end-users because of the competing economic pressures on projects. Preliminary research with end-users (a particularly rich source of information) may be squeezed in favour of more tangible, later-stage project deliverables. This case study paper presents a pragmatic approach to getting closer to end-users by briefing project stakeholders to think as surrogate users within managed 90 to 120 minute-long focus groups. It concludes with an evaluation of the approach in terms of the experiences of the research participants and its merits in terms of project delivery and outcomes. It finds that the method described is particularly useful in multi-stakeholder projects and provides a rich design brief with clear, agreed, user-centred design goals.