Usability of Design by Customer Websites
The Design by Customer (DBC) approach is aimed at enabling companies to be more sensitive to what the customer really wants. The concept implies that users design a product using options offered by the company in a configuration system, while the latter a
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Usability of Design by Customer Websites Oon Yin Bee and Halimahtun M Khalid Institute of Design and Ergonomics Application, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia
The Design by Customer (DBC) approach is aimed at enabling companies to be more sensitive to what the customer really wants . The concept implies that users design a product using options offered by the company in a configuration system, while the latter assembles the product. There are constraints in providing the configuration system online, such as the types of product to offer, attributes of product for customer to design , and so forth. Therefore, design of a catalogue (representing the customization options) and of a corresponding configuration system is critical so that customers can be supported effectively in the design process. More important, what is designed is what the customer gets in the final product. This chapter reports the results of an experimental study that evaluates three DBC Web sites on user preferences of Web site features and e-cataloguecum-configuration system . Using factor analysis, three generic factors were extracted for the DBC Web site features , namely : holistic design, navigability, and timeliness, while for the configuration system itself, the factors extracted represent design procedure, aesthetic preferences, information display, and design pleasure . The results also showed that users preferred top-down hierarchical approach for designing bicycles , watches and dresses . The Spearman rank correlation performed on the ordinal preference data showed significant relationships between the hypothesized and measured ranks for these Web sites. On the basis of this study, we derived specifications for an online configuration system of future Web sites.
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Introduction: DIYD and understanding customer needs
Rapid development in new technologies drives customers to demand high-quality and low-priced products that meet their needs [I] . Manufacturers have to compete to overcome factors such as product variety and the speed to market. To be agile in product development, manufacturers need to understand customer needs, and to seize quickly changing market opportunities, as well as build products speedily in response to those needs [2]. In the light of this development, the customer profile has changed . Customers today are more liberated, choosey, informative and demanding. Keeping the customers satisfied requires manufacturers to mass customize their products. Mass customization is the selling of highly individual products on a mass scale . Products are built to order, and manufacturing takes M. M. Tseng et al. (eds.), The Customer Centric Enterprise © Springer-Verlag Berlin • Heidelberg 2003
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place only as and when there is an order from a customer [3]. The advantage of mass customization over mass production is that products are designed to customer specifics through direct communication with the manufacturer. Although many companies tried to move their busine ss onto the Web, not all of them are
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