Användarbehov i samhällsplanering : en fallstudie av användarcentrerade metoder

Sammanfattning: Public participation in urban planning is meant to increase democracy in the planning process. Even though all citizens have the option to participate in urban planning debates, few seize their chance to partake. This thesis describes a study on how user needs are met and prioritized in design processes concerning urban planning. The aim was to determine whether user-centered design (UCD) methods could be used as an avenue for public participation in urban planning and ultimately invite more citizens into the planning process. The thesis details a design process where a team worked to develop Farsta, a suburb of Stockholm. The design problem was the question of how Farsta could become an attractive business location. Four concepts were developed and presented to the client. One of the concepts was chosen for further development. In the design process, three different UCD methods were used (interviews, observations and a workshop). The data from these methods were triangulated in the thesis to define user needs. These user needs were then mapped to the different concepts. Based on the mapping, the concept that met the largest number of the user needs could be established. The study showed that the concept that met the most user needs was not the concept that the design team chose to develop further after the presentation to the client. A possible explanation for this is the fact that the client preferred another concept. Thus, the client's wishes and the concept's feasibility were in this case prioritized higher than the users' needs. Despite this, UCD is found to have the potential to invite more citizens into the planning process since people who do not participate in the urban planning debates today could partake through UCD methods. But this demands deliberate efforts from the designer to find and include these user groups.