Contents 1. INTRODUCTION
Standard approaches to systems engineering design have had some proven successes. However, those approaches in some cases appear to lack flexibility for effectively adjusting functionality. That is, functionality according to projected technological changes; functionality necessary for meeting user needs and requirements; and functionality to create certain effects by providing modifiable technological user-centered capabilities throughout the 21st-Century. Put simply, standard approaches to systems engineering design lack flexibility to adjust according to user-centered design requirements and fast shifts in a globally competitive landscape. Oftentimes the actual design processes do not include the social, psychological, and human behavioral factors for end-uses and –users of technological products. Instead the design processes are related more toward “technological requirements” than they are to “user-centered requirements.” Technological requirements drive product innovation and improvement without necessarily considering the abovementioned user-centered requirements which more directly relate to the customer. In this study the authors examined several past and current instances of how system design activities and product development cycles can better account for the often ignored customer-centered factors.
