Participatory Requirements Engineering − Using Factorial Surveys to understand Users’ Attitude towards Emerging Technologies

Abstract

In this century small villages face the great challenge to ensure the local supply with food and essential goods. Urbanisation and demographic change have caused many village stores and supermarkets to close their subsidiaries in rural areas. Thus, new concepts for village stores are needed. Based on a real situation this study presents a participatory research approach to gather the requirements for a multifunctional, digitalised village store. Together with the population in the reference village we conducted workshops, information events and an experimental vignette methodology (EVM) to gather the requirements of most citizens so that the design corresponds to the needs of the majority of the village population. The results show that the digital transformation of the village store has to be evolutionary to ensure a high users’ acceptance. Besides, the use of new digital technologies is essential to contribute for the local long-term supply with food and indispensable goods in rural areas.