Issue 1 (major): Needs Identification and Requirements Definition are not
fully represented. Gero and Kannengiesser (2004) explicitly refer to the requirements
(R) of a design problem, but they do not consider there to be a difference
between Needs and Requirements. Compared with the careful
description of the following design processes, the definition of the requirements
appears to be too simplistic,
which is in line with the limited relevance
conventionally assigned in design theory to user needs recognition. Indeed,
this lack has been recognised by Vermaas and Dorst (2007) as well. Therefore,
they introduce, in addition to Behaviour and Function, the concept of Purpose.
Function, in their contribution, is not ‘the result of the artefact behaviour’,
but is a ‘physical disposition of an artefact that contributes to the purposes for which the artefact is designed’. Purpose, as belonging to a client, is the expression of ‘something that meets a need’ and this highlights that in
Situating needs and requirements in the FBS