Nothing Found
It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching can help.
Manufacturers who succeed in fully and correctly collecting and fulfilling the user requirements not only act in accordance with the legal requirements. They are also successful in the market with usable devices.
Content
This page provides you with a compact introduction and links to further articles:
- User requirements: Basics
- Regulatory requirements for collection
- Collecting and verifying user requirements
- Support
1. User requirements: Basics
a) Definition
The DAkkS guideline “Usability” defines a user requirement as follows:
Definition: User requirement
A required user action in an interactive system, in a way that describes the activity – not in a technically realized way.
Source: DAkkS Guideline Usability
b) Wording and examples
Users can only enter something on interactive systems, select something, or perform a cognitive task such as understanding, recognizing, or distinguishing.
Tip
Formulate user requirements using the following sentence template:
„The user must be able to do XY on the system,“ where XY stands for verbs such as enter, select, understand, recognize, or distinguish.
Examples of user requirements are:
- The user must be able to recognize patients with low hemoglobin levels on the system.
- The user must be able to select the patient on the system.
- The user must be able to enter the patient’s name on the system.
c) English terms
Apart from the term user requirement, other terms such as “usage requirement,” “requirement for use,” etc. are also used. Thomas Geis, author of many usability standards, states:
“The only term that is common is “user requirement.” The problem with “usage requirement” and “requirement for use” is that they are also used for “terms of use.” At the end of the day, the simplest compromise is user requirement.“
d) Differentiation from other requirements
In addition to the regulatory and market requirements, the user requirements are among the stakeholder requirements. Together with the technical requirements, these, in turn, form the general requirements.
Further information
To learn more about the other requirement types and their taxonomy, please refer to the articles on general requirements, stakeholder requirements, and technical requirements.
2. Regulatory requirements
Standards and laws set requirements for the collection and verification of stakeholder requirements. These regulatory requirements are presented in the article mentioned above on stakeholder requirements.
Note
Many standards and legal requirements do not precisely distinguish between the various requirements. For example, they do not differentiate between customer requirements and user requirements. The requirements of the customers (buyers) are the market requirements. The customers are not necessarily also the users of the devices.
3. Collecting and verifying user requirements
a) Collection of the user requirements
User requirements cannot be obtained by asking users what their requirements are; if you ask what they need, they will answer what they want.
In other words, if you ask “users” about their “requirements,” the answer you get is not “user requirements” but “user requests.”
Further information
Read more about the difference between user requirements and requests in this article.
User requirements can be determined most efficiently and systematically using the context method, which is described in ISO 9241.
b) Verification of the user requirements
Manufacturers must prove that the user requirements are met, i.e., users can enter, select, and recognize something on a system as specified.
This can be demonstrated in two steps:
Step 1:
Usability verification involves investigating whether input, selection, and recognition are possible. The methods used are
- inspection using checklists and comparison with the user requirements,
- cognitive walkthrough and
- heuristic evaluation.
Step 2:
Usability validation involves usability tests (summative evaluation) to check whether users achieve the usage goals. To do this, the user requirements must be met.
4. Support
Do you still have questions about the user requirements? You can get answers in our free micro-consulting.
Through usability tests in the Johner Institute’s labs, you can ensure that all stakeholder requirements are verified in accordance with the standard and that your devices are successful thanks to their usability.
Contact us right here if you would like support. We will help you collect and verify all relevant requirements quickly, easily, and in compliance with the law. Your devices will then be safe, in demand, and quickly launched on the market.
