Design support method for implementing benefits of inconvenience inspired by TRIZ

Abstract

In most cases, system design develops products for reducing human work based on the assumption that the more convenient life is, the richer it is. This assumption has yielded technical developments and outcomes that we generally appreciate. However, such development is not always the best for users or human-machine systems. Solely pursuing convenience causes such problems as excluding users, limiting their ability, and depriving the pleasure of using the systems. On the other hand, inconvenient systems or methods sometimes provide users with such benefits as enhanced awareness, increased creative contributions, and a fostering of affirmative feelings. We call such benefits of inconvenience fuben-eki: Further BENEfit of a Kind of Inconvenience. The present paper proposes a systematic way to implement such benefits. By focusing on the contradiction between convenience and such benefits, this study introduces the Contradiction Matrix of TRIZ. By analyzing many inconvenient tools and methods, principles, which relate inconveniences to their benefits, are derived and placed in what we call a fuben-eki matrix. This paper demonstrates how to utilize the matrix, which resembles the Contradiction Matrix of TRIZ, to support the idea generation for implementing the benefits of inconvenience.