To identify user needs has become increasingly important as new interaction technology (IT) and services become available continuously and the use of interaction technologies such as, for example, internet or mobile phones have grown to be ubiquitous, influencing leisure as well as work. Therefore, new interaction technologies must offer added value for the user or the products or services will stay unused since most of them are optional to use. To increase the possibility for actual use, a responsive process for discovery of needs among users should become a natural part in design and development of innovative interaction technologies. But, the process of identifying user needs is complicated because the needs are situated in the user’s context and are experienced by the user as a perceived lack of satisfying solutions.

The purpose of this paper is to present a method for identifying and operationalising needs that are difficult to articulate, i.e. tacit needs, and needs that are easy to articulate, i.e. explicit needs, in design processes. Appreciating Needs (AN) is an interpretative approach where the study of people aims to identify unmet needs and it is to some extent a paradoxical activity, since what is sought for is a circumstance where something is missing.

Our method has its basis in the underlying ideas of Needfinding and is inspired by Appreciative Design. In our method, rich stories/narratives about the intended users’ situation are generated and these stories give a rich understanding of their context. From this understanding, needs are appreciated and operationalised in innovative design of new technical solutions. Hence, with a focus on discovering users’ needs early on, we involve users throughout the design process, leading to perpetual and persistent user-centred systems.