UCD vs ECD: from "User" to "Experiencer" Centered-Approach in Sailing Yacht Design

Yacht design is a complex design field, in which highly specialized branches of learning converge with as many specific planning contributions that the yacht designer finds himself having to co-ordinate to establish the formal values of the artefact-boat, full of symbolic and functional aspects. In particular, sailing yacht design deals with greater difficulties, because it must integrate the technological and technical innovation and figurative and cultural codification aspects, with the demands of liveability of the areas in continual movement and of the overall efficiency of the system-boat expressed by the final users. Therefore, the methods, techniques and instruments developed by applied ergonomics offer to yacht design a significant operative support into direct planning action with awareness towards a morphological and spatial research which is both elegant in its language and fluid in its articulation and functionally efficient and pleasant in its use. In fact, the UCD - User-Centered Design’s approach, developed by the ergonomics, with its theoretical and applicative scope, is able to place the individual and his requirements at the center of the yacht design, reflecting him on the main levels of the requirements of the nautical product: from those regarding the safety of equipment and areas, to their functionality, ease of use, up to the requirement for pleasantness of the environment and finishing. This paper proposes an initial reflection on the peculiarity and multidimensional complexity of this design field, above all referred to the sailing yacht design, underlining the aspects on which the UCD ergonomic approach can provide planning indications which are useful to the anthropocentric management of the project. In particular, starting from a known classification of the ergonomic requirements of the products (safety-functionality-usability-pleasantness), it outlines a synthesis from it attributed to the nautical product, with the aim of identifying the various levels of a possible contribution of applied ergonomics to the yacht design. Through some experiences of ergonomic research applied to sailing yacht design, it is demonstrated how ergonomics until now could contribute to identify highly innovative solutions orientated towards user’s wellbeing, even in such a sector as pleasure boat sailing, highly connoted by a complex system of semantic and technological ties. With the recent change of perspective suggested from holistic ergonomics, which under an applicative point of view flows into the Design for All approach, we are however witnessing the transition from the centrality of the individual to the centrality of man in his totality. This issue, addressed In the conclusive part of the paper, raises the question of '"user" that turns into an "experiencer". In the perspective of sustainable development, in fact, issues of usability and pleasantness of use are surpassed by those of a conscious use and of an "experientiality" enhancing in an inclusive manner the diversity among individuals. This certainly has consequences even in a specialized design field like yacht design, starting a project research on issues that only recently started to be explored.