NINEIDEA：在工业设计领域，满足用户需求是产品成功的关键。然而，用户需求往往复杂且微妙，许多深层需求难以用言语清晰表达。此时，人类学方法如同工业设计的 “第三只眼”，用人类学方法挖掘用户设计需求，能帮助设计师发现冰山之下的视角，创造出更具创新性与适用性的产品。
传统设计调研方法的局限
传统的工业设计调研，多依赖问卷调查、用户访谈和焦点小组等方法。问卷调查虽能快速收集大量数据，但问题设置的局限性使得用户难以充分表达真实想法与感受，答案往往流于表面。例如，在关于手机设计的问卷中，询问用户对手机尺寸的偏好，用户可能基于现有市场产品给出常规答案，却无法表达出对未来新型尺寸与形态结合的潜在需求。
用户访谈时，由于语言表达的限制和社会期望的影响，用户可能会提供 “理想答案”，而非内心真实需求。比如，在访谈智能家电使用体验时，用户可能强调对高科技功能的追求，却忽略了操作复杂带来的困扰，因为他们潜意识里认为高科技就应复杂。焦点小组讨论易受群体思维影响，少数人的独特观点可能被忽视，导致设计师错过关键信息。
人类学方法为工业设计带来新视角
参与观察：人类学中的参与观察法让设计师深入用户生活环境，与用户共同生活、工作，亲身体验用户行为与需求。例如，在设计老年人健康监测设备时，设计师住进养老院，观察老人们的日常活动、与现有医疗设备的交互过程。通过长时间观察，发现老人们在使用传统监测设备时，因视力、手部灵活性下降，对小巧复杂的操作按钮存在困扰。这一发现促使设计师在新设备设计中采用大字体显示、大尺寸触摸式操作界面，极大提升了产品易用性。
文化分析：不同文化背景下，用户对产品的认知、需求和使用习惯差异显著。文化分析帮助设计师理解这些文化因素对用户需求的影响。以餐具设计为例，西方文化中，刀叉使用注重切割与叉取动作，而东方文化中筷子用于夹取食物。在全球化背景下，设计一款适合不同文化背景用户的多功能餐具，需考虑不同文化下的饮食行为、礼仪规范。通过文化分析，设计师可挖掘出用户对餐具功能、形态、材质等方面潜在需求，创造出既尊重文化差异又具通用性的产品。
物品研究：对用户日常使用物品的研究，能揭示其行为模式与潜在需求。设计师收集并分析用户使用过的旧产品，观察磨损部位、改装痕迹等。例如，在研究户外爱好者的背包时，发现背包肩带与背部接触处磨损严重，且使用者常自行添加挂钩悬挂物品。这表明用户对背包背负舒适性和外挂收纳功能有更高需求，为新背包设计提供改进方向，如采用耐磨材料、优化背负系统并增加实用外挂点。
人类学方法在工业设计中的实践案例
以智能家居产品设计为例，九号创新设计团队希望开发一款智能厨房助手。传统调研显示用户期望产品具备菜谱查询、食材管理等常见功能。然而，通过人类学方法深入家庭厨房观察，团队发现家庭烹饪场景复杂多样。不同家庭成员在厨房中的角色和参与度不同，烹饪过程中常常出现因手脏无法操作智能设备屏幕的困扰。
基于这些观察，设计团队对智能厨房助手进行重新设计。增加语音控制功能，让用户无需接触屏幕即可完成操作；设计可吸附在厨房墙壁或冰箱上的磁性安装方式，方便不同身高和使用习惯的家庭成员随时使用；针对多人协作烹饪场景，开发家庭成员间可共享烹饪计划、互相提醒的功能。产品推出后，因精准满足用户潜在需求而广受好评。
运用人类学方法面临的挑战与应对策略
运用人类学方法于工业设计，面临时间成本高、研究结果主观性强等挑战。长时间的参与观察和文化分析需要投入大量时间与精力，与商业项目的时间限制存在冲突。同时，人类学研究结果受研究者个人视角和解读方式影响，存在主观性。
为应对时间成本问题，设计师可采用 “快速人类学” 方法，聚焦关键问题，在相对短时间内获取核心信息。针对主观性问题，组建跨学科团队，包括人类学家、设计师、工程师等，从不同专业视角解读研究结果，提高结果客观性与可靠性。
工业设计中的人类学方法，为挖掘用户潜在需求提供有力工具。虽面临挑战，但通过合理策略可有效应对。借助这 “第三只眼”，设计师能突破传统调研局限，创造出更贴合用户真实需求、具有创新性与竞争力的产品，推动工业设计发展迈向新高度。
@NINEIDEA九号创新 www.nineidea.com
The ‘Third Eye’ of Industrial Design: Exploring User Design Needs through Anthropological Methods
NINEIDEA: In the field of industrial design, meeting user needs is the key to product success. However, user needs are often complex and subtle, and many deep needs are difficult to express clearly in words. At this point, anthropological methods are like the “third eye” of industrial design. Using anthropological methods to explore user design needs can help designers discover perspectives beneath the iceberg and create more innovative and applicable products.
The limitations of traditional design research methods
Traditional industrial design research often relies on methods such as questionnaire surveys, user interviews, and focus groups. Although questionnaire surveys can quickly collect large amounts of data, the limitations of question setting make it difficult for users to fully express their true thoughts and feelings, and the answers often remain superficial. For example, in a questionnaire about mobile phone design, when asked about users’ preferences for phone size, users may give conventional answers based on existing market products, but cannot express their potential demand for future combinations of new sizes and forms.
During user interviews, due to language limitations and social expectations, users may provide “ideal answers” rather than their true inner needs. For example, when interviewing the user experience of smart home appliances, users may emphasize their pursuit of high-tech functions but overlook the difficulties caused by complex operations, because they subconsciously believe that high technology should be complex. Focus group discussions are easily influenced by groupthink, and the unique perspectives of a few individuals may be overlooked, leading designers to miss key information.
Anthropological methods bring new perspectives to industrial design
Participatory observation: The participatory observation method in anthropology allows designers to delve into the user’s living environment, live and work together with users, and personally experience user behavior and needs. For example, when designing health monitoring devices for the elderly, designers move into nursing homes to observe the daily activities of the elderly and their interaction with existing medical equipment. Through long-term observation, it was found that elderly people have difficulties with small and complex operation buttons when using traditional monitoring devices due to decreased vision and hand flexibility. This discovery prompted designers to adopt large font displays and large-sized touch based interfaces in new device designs, greatly improving product usability.
Cultural analysis: There are significant differences in users’ perceptions, needs, and usage habits of products under different cultural backgrounds. Cultural analysis helps designers understand the impact of these cultural factors on user needs. Taking tableware design as an example, in Western culture, the use of knives and forks emphasizes cutting and fork picking actions, while in Eastern culture, chopsticks are used to pick up food. In the context of globalization, designing a multifunctional tableware suitable for users from different cultural backgrounds requires consideration of dietary behavior and etiquette norms in different cultures. Through cultural analysis, designers can uncover potential user needs for tableware functionality, form, materials, and other aspects, creating products that respect cultural differences while also being universal.
Item research: The study of users’ daily use of items can reveal their behavioral patterns and potential needs. Designers collect and analyze old products that users have used, observe worn areas, modification marks, etc. For example, when studying backpacks for outdoor enthusiasts, it was found that the shoulder straps and back contact area of the backpack were severely worn, and users often added hooks to hang items themselves. This indicates that users have higher demands for backpack carrying comfort and external storage functions, providing improvement directions for new backpack designs, such as using wear-resistant materials, optimizing the carrying system, and adding practical external points.
Practical Cases of Anthropological Methods in Industrial Design
Taking the design of smart home products as an example, the NINEIDEA STUDIO team hopes to develop a smart kitchen assistant. Traditional research shows that users expect products to have common functions such as recipe queries and ingredient management. However, through anthropological methods and in-depth observation of home kitchens, the team found that home cooking scenes are complex and diverse. Different family members have different roles and levels of participation in the kitchen, and there are often difficulties in operating smart device screens due to dirty hands during the cooking process.
Based on these observations, the design team has redesigned the intelligent kitchen assistant. Add voice control function, allowing users to complete operations without touching the screen; Design a magnetic installation method that can be attached to kitchen walls or refrigerators, making it convenient for family members of different heights and usage habits to use at any time; Develop a feature for family members to share cooking plans and remind each other in collaborative cooking scenarios. After the product was launched, it was widely praised for accurately meeting the potential needs of users.
Challenges and coping strategies in applying anthropological methods
Applying anthropological methods to industrial design faces challenges such as high time costs and subjective research results. Long term participation in observation and cultural analysis requires a significant amount of time and effort, which conflicts with the time constraints of commercial projects. At the same time, anthropological research results are subjective and influenced by the researcher’s personal perspective and interpretation methods.
To address the issue of time cost, designers can use the “rapid anthropology” method to focus on key issues and obtain core information in a relatively short period of time. To address subjective issues, an interdisciplinary team is formed, including anthropologists, designers, engineers, etc., to interpret research results from different professional perspectives and improve the objectivity and reliability of the results.
Anthropological methods in industrial design provide powerful tools for exploring potential user needs. Although facing challenges, they can be effectively addressed through reasonable strategies. With the help of this’ third eye ‘, designers can break through the limitations of traditional research and create innovative and competitive products that better meet the real needs of users, promoting the development of industrial design to new heights.
@NINEIDEA九号创新 www.nineidea.com
