Simulation as a pedagogical strategy in product design

Although there are several implementations and ways of carrying out a simulation, this text will emphasize on the usage of this tool within the product design and development environment. While this topic is generally performed in the testing phases, it’s important to encourage simulations in order to fully assimilate design issues and the features of the User -Object -Context system since the early stages of development. All this process is done to avoid errors in the way a designer interprets the information found in literature as inputs or design guideline [1-6]. Based on this approach, the Ergonomics Research Line of the Industrial Design Faculty of the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, propose the development of the research Project, whose general objective is to develop a system of elements that allow the designer to simulate functional states of users with particular physical characteristics. in this case the user of the elderly was approached as the theme of the project.