The Use of a User in Design Projects

Abstract

This study examines how user representation is embodied in students’ physical models in technology education design projects, and how this relates to the models’ function, structure, and overall design.

Given that physical models are widely used in technology education, previous research has paid limited attention to how users become materialised in students’ models. Drawing on research that conceptualises modelling as a generative and epistemic activity, this study addresses this gap by analysing 45 physical models produced in a technology course for student teachers. The models were created in an individual design assignment based on a children’s book. Two versions of the assignment were used: one requiring student to design a technological solution represented in a model for a specific user within the book, and another using the book purely as inspiration for designing a solution. The models were analysed using an extended analytical framework that included graded categories of user representation model design character and structural representation.

Findings show that user representation decisively shaped the character and overall design of the models. Models with clear user influence displayed explicit structural reasoning and integrated overall designs, whereas models lacking user representation tended to remain exploratory or centred on isolated functions. Importantly, user representation also emerged when not explicitly required, indicating that users functioned as interpretive resources in students’ design reasoning. The study contributes empirical and analytical insight into how user-related reasoning becomes embodied in physical models and highlights the need for further research and more robust analytical frameworks for examining physical models in technology education.