Guidelines of System Design for Embodying Benefits of Inconvenience

Abstract : The benefits obtained from inconvenience, which we call the FUrther BENEfit of a Kind of Inconvenience(fuben-eki), are now being recognized in many research fields. To design systems that embody such benefits, this paperproposes fuben-eki cards. A set of them consists of principle cards and benefit cards. Each principle card shows a tenetto make a system inconvenient that leads to the positive outcomes shown on each benefit card. The results of evaluationexperiments show that principle cards increased the number of ideas when they were used for the divergent thinkingprocesses of a fuben-eki system design. Key Words: fuben-eki, human-machine system, creativity support tool. 1. Introduction In general, designers tend to unquestioningly pursue conve-nient systems. Although convenience may enrich our lives, itmay not always be the best for users. On the contrary, conve-nientsystemsmayencouragesuchharmfulaspectsasdecreasesin human skills and motivation [1],[2]. Contemplating the neg-ative aspects of convenient systems has actually prompted usto focus on the benefits of inconvenience that have been over-looked because only convenience has been pursued. A theoryof designing systems that focuses on fuben-eki, which standsfor the FUrther BENEfit of a Kind of Inconvenience, has beenproposed to appreciate the value of inconvenience [3].A fuben-eki system incorporates the benefits of inconve-nience. There exist many good examples of fuben-eki systemsbut proper guidelines to design them remain unknown. We dis-cusshereguidelinesfortheconceptualdesignoffuben-ekisys-tems and propose a tool that supports their design.