The Guided Imaginary Projection, a New Methodology for Prospective Ergonomics
Résumé
We tested a new methodology called ``guided imaginary projection' (GIP) to support people in projecting themselves into the use of emergent services, in order to gather information about their probable subjective experience with the future service. For the purpose of the study, the targeted service was `dynamic' carpooling, a mobility service geolocated for short distance and immediate travel, still rarely used. We aimed to collect information about the sources of comfort and discomfort imagined by non-users. 24 interviews were conducted to evaluate the method. The population was divided in two groups, the projection group and the non-projection group. Our hypothesis is that if the projection group had a more complete projected form of experience of the service, this group should produce more elements about the sources of comfort and discomfort of the dynamic carpooling compared to others. The results indicate that the projection group's interviews lasted significantly longer and contained significantly more elements of comfort and discomfort than the non-projection group. We also analysed the types of discourse used during the GIP to evaluate the degree of projection: imaginary-embodied, imaginary-analytical, or general discourse. At the end we discuss the results, limits and perspectives.