ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some fundamental aspects of the user and reflects on their role within the reality of design. Ethnographic research methods are often used in design because they allow us to ‘understand more of the user’s perception of the object, environment, system, or service the user is engaged with’. Fundamental characteristic of the user is their condition as a social being. In general circumstances, a person always develops within a specific social environment. The individual dimension of the user, then, includes both quantifiable aspects and intersubjective and subjective aspects. Within the dimensions of the user, the one that corresponds to the human condition is the widest because it includes all design users, regardless of their age, place of residence, lifestyle, economic capability, beliefs, etc. Maslow’s contributions also have an important impact on design as most of the needs are translated into features of the design projects.
