Vol.4 No.3 2012

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Research paper−144−Synthesiology - English edition Vol.4 No.3 pp.144-155 (Jan. 2012) information through GPS and optical communication[4]. The industrial technology is expected to develop the products and services that can fulfill various demands for various people, but the methodology for providing the policy for realizing what function and which service has not been established.If the product or service is already accepted in society, the improvement of the function of that technology will be the objective of the R&D, and the researcher can set the R&D scenario by applying the knowledge of natural sciences involved. However, this will not generate a novel product. When conducting the technological development of a novel product, the developer comes up with an idea, the idea is reviewed, and the research is conducted under the decision that it may be accepted by the users. However, that does not necessarily result in a hit product. This is not only because the individuality of the developer and the user is different, but it is also because it is impossible to switch the viewpoint completely to the user’s side when one is on the developer’s side. The reason why it is difficult to imagine the actual usage situations from the developer’s viewpoint is because the product and service are used in various situations, including the user him/herself, that changes in various ways. Therefore, there must be a process early in the stage of R&D to understand the actual usage situations of the person with certain personality traits, and obtain hints needed for designing the product and service for such a person. 1 IntroductionThe research outcomes of science and technology are ultimately used by people in the form of products, systems, or services. Of course, there are R&Ds for some elements of a system as well as R&Ds for the materials used as parts, but eventually all of them will be used by people. Therefore, as synthesiology for utilizing the results of science and technology in society, it is necessary to have a research methodology to design the product or service that people perceive as being beneficial in their daily lives.Ever since the Industrial Revolution, various industrial products entered the people’s lives through mass production technology. However, as the living standards increased, people are no longer satisfied with the current mass produced products, and there are demands for products custom fit for the individual. It is the age of different strokes for different people. The traditional mass production is limited in responding to the people’s diversified tastes, and the research is done for minimal manufacturing[1] and on-demand manufacturing technology[2] that can respond to low-volume high-mix production and built-to-order (BTO). In the service industry, it is recognized that a person may want something different according to the time and occasion, and the age of different strokes for a single person has arrived[3]. For example, in the information service, providing information that pleases the user at a certain moment is expected to be realized based on the location - Development of cognitive chrono-ethnography for synthesiological research-When technology development is conducted based only on a developer’s idea, we face difficulties in realizing products and services that will be well accepted by people. This is because it is difficult for a developer to know precisely how various users think and feel while using products or receiving services under real life situations. In order to overcome these difficulties, we have developed cognitive chrono-ethnography (CCE) which is a new method to understand cognitive behavior under various situations. This method clarifies the cognitive behavior process by selecting “elite monitors” taking characteristics of target users into consideration, identifying “critical parameters” utilized in designing the products or services, recording the human behavior in real life situations under the control of the parameters, and retrospectively interviewing the participants. This method is applied in the early stages of synthesiological R&D processes oriented toward designing target products and services acceptable by people.Designing products and services based on understanding human cognitive behaviorKeywords : Behavioral experiment, verbal protocol, daily life, retrospective interview, subject selection, car navigation system, baseball game watching[Translation from Synthesiology, Vol.4, No.3, p.140-150 (2011)]Motoyuki Akamatsu1*and Muneo Kitajima21. Human Technology Research Institute, AIST Tsukuba Central 6, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba 305-8566, Japan *E-mail : , 2. Center for Service Research, AIST Tsukuba Central 2, 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba 305-8568, JapanOriginal manuscript received February 14, 2011, Revisions received May 31, 2011, Accepted June 1, 2011

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