This paper sheds light on the new possibilities for user research activities facilitated by access to makerspaces. We present four case studies of user research conducted in two university-based makerspaces as examples of makerspace-driven user research. Further, by comparing the cases to three classical user research activities, namely observation, prototyping, and user journey mapping, we highlight the main aspects of this new context of user research. We find that accessibility to makerspaces enables user researchers to build low-fidelity yet high-functionality prototypes for exploring users’ preferences and motivations in controlled and repeatable ways. These prototypes fall into the category of experience prototypes, but they have greater functionality than the prototypes previously used in this field. Thus, a user researcher can explore a topic more systematically and in a more hypothesis-driven manner. In summary, this study encourages stakeholders in the early stages of product development to consider a makerspace as a resource for user-related requirement elicitation rather than for only specific product iteration.

中文翻译：

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创客空间支持的用户研究：将功能带入经典体验原型

本文阐明了通过访问创客空间促进用户研究活动的新可能性。我们提出了四个在两个大学创客空间中进行的用户研究案例研究，作为创客空间驱动的用户研究的例子。此外，通过将这些案例与三个经典的用户研究活动（即观察、原型制作和用户旅程映射）进行比较，我们强调了这种新的用户研究背景的主要方面。我们发现，创客空间的可访问性使用户研究人员能够构建低保真但功能强大的原型，以便以受控和可重复的方式探索用户的偏好和动机。这些原型属于体验原型的范畴，但它们比之前在该领域使用的原型具有更大的功能。因此，用户研究人员可以更系统地以更假设驱动的方式探索主题。总之，本研究鼓励处于产品开发早期阶段的利益相关者将创客空间视为与用户相关的需求获取的资源，而不仅仅是特定的产品迭代。