Which functional and design aspects to prioritize when developing outdoor tents - To optimize customer satisfaction and four season use.

Sammanfattning: Optimizing customer satisfaction is vital to maintain relevance as well as being competitive on a growing market. This research is aimed to explore what aspects of design and functionality that should be prioritized when developing solo tunnel tents for four season use within a European market. Since solo tents are small in size, users seem to prioritize purchasing a tent for two people because it provides bigger space for equipment, accompanied animals and is more reliable in bad weather. To examine the research questions, a design theory and human centered design method has been applied to optimize customer satisfaction. The study consists of literature study, survey, interviews, empathy mapping and prototyping, which resulted in an implemented prototype for a four season solo tent planned for future production. Furthermore, a prototype has been developed by data conducted from the survey, interviews and a design brief given by the partnering company. Conspicuous results have been shown through a survey and interviews, which explains the difficulties in development of tents to ensure a wider range of customer satisfaction. Findings in this research emerged that weight was not the most important aspect when buying a four season solo tent. A correlation has been investigated, there was an expectation from the producer that lightweight tents were preferred by the users, however this research exposed that it is not as important as imagined for a four season solo tent. In the sense of a solo tent for four seasons, the users desire space over weight. Furthermore, the results also showed that there was a difference in requirements related to the two different groups that had been investigated. It was found that experienced users had a higher preference of design and ergonomic aspects compared to the common users that did not rank it as important. Within this research a total of 55 people participated, where 44 people participated in the survey and 11 people participated in the interviews. For future research a larger number of participants, preferably women, could provide an interesting result and more on if people from a larger area outside Sweden participated in the research. Furthermore a physical test of the prototyped tent would ensure that this study results in a design that optimizes customer satisfaction.