Fundamental questions of HTI and design ontologies: A metascientific analysis

HTI design research is characterized by three basic questions: "Can users use artefacts?", "Do they like to use them?", and "How do they use them?" Firstly, we show that there is an additional basic issue, which is the relevance of technology in life. Secondly, we argue that the design process is essentially about asking right design questions and solving them in a proper way. This means that the leadership of innovative technology companies can construct systematic design process ontologies which begin with the basic problems and other product-independent questions. In practice, it is necessary also to develop product-specific sets of questions and use the ontologies thus formed for managing HTI development. These ontologies enable people to systematically use scientific knowledge for both setting and solving design problems.