The paper proposes an extension of Gero’s FunctioneBehavioureStructure
(FBS) framework aimed at representing Needs and Requirements and their
relationships with the Function, the Behaviour and the Structure of an artefact.
Needs and Requirements are modelled as further types of variables to describe,
with the same formal approach of the situated FBS model, the transformation
processes, which occur in the earlier stages of design. The proposed model is
clarified through an application to the information gathered within an industrial
project to reduce water and energy consumption of a washing machine. By
situating Needs and Requirements into the FBS framework, it is possible to
properly represent all the tasks and the related cognitive processes
characterising the earliest stages of the new product development.
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