Eliciting and managing information for product definition

In recent years there has been considerable research in understanding and automating the overall design process, with a common goal of improving the quality of the end product. This project describes the methodology and validation processes for eliciting and managing product information for redesign of a whitewater cataraft Game. The customer information elicited from two groups of users-commercial and recreational-provide the product specifications for the redesign. Two iterations of the cataraft frame are demonstrated via use of a design database and the improvements in product quality and design time is experimentally validated.