Creativity as a tool for prospective use analysis in the design of innovative products

Ergonomists' participation to New Product Development (NPD) projects has undergone major evolutions in recent years. One consequence is the changing status of the ergonomist, from an expert in diagnosing existing activities, to an expert in identifying opportunities in the use of a new product, with a need for new methods and tools to assist prospective analysis of future use. We propose an original approach to address this need of designers in general and ergonomists in particular. We first present a survey of issues regarding ergonomics involvement in NPD projects. We then argue that creativity methods may be used to address some of these issues. Lastly, we describe a protocol to test this claim, assessing the benefits of two creativity methods -- brainwriting and discovery matrices -- for prospective use analysis, with two different applications: the design of products based on emerging technologies, and that of safety systems.