The Customers of the future program for 2002 was based on developing the techniques for envisioning requirements to design information and communication technologies (ICT’s) using empirical studies. This followed on from the enactment and envisioning in the 2001 program, using young people, 16 – 22, in lieu of actors to further develop the technique.
The main objective of the program was to develop the technique to the extent where it could be performed with young technology users rather than trained actors.
The third stage of the 2001 program was re-run using actual 16-22 year old customers of the future rather than actors. These young people were placed in situations based on scenario vignettes developed for the 2001 program and provided with low fidelity form factor objects. Researchers observed as the young people explored the ways in which these objects could support various tasks and goals.
Academic and industry papers, reports and media releases from this work is presented in this website.
Various discussions were also held with industry partners working towards applying this technique to solve industry problems.
 
Detailed Description
Methodology
The enactment was run during one weekend in mid June 2002. Four young people aged 16 – 22 participated as ‘actors’. Scenarios from the 2001 work based on real life situations of use and presented as ‘stage directions’ were acted out combining people with expected future forms of technology in the situations of use. Again, the form factors consisted of very low fidelity objects that could be worn or carried. enactments were ‘performed’ in the Australian Melbourne Novell office and also in carefully selected public places to support creation of context. The researchers worked with young people, acting out scenarios, iteratively changing constraints and developing the technique to define requirements for situations of use. The same director and scenarios were used to support the enactment. The entire process was filmed using handheld cameras.
Key Findings
The ‘acting out’ technique to envision future requirements for technology was refined and moved closer to a point where it could be used by commercial industry. There were many differences found using ‘real’ young people to perform the enactment in lieu of actors. The enactment tapes were analysed extensively and a number of papers and presentations have been produced to describe and develop the technique. These have been presented in various national and international forums. Information regarding these may be found in the publications sections of this web site
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