Extreme Users

A design methodology that focuses on a small set of users with unusual, demanding, or outlying needs rather than statistically representative users. Developed by Pullin and Newell (2007), the approach recognizes that the variability among older and disabled users is too great to capture through representative sampling. Designers create individual solutions tailored to each extreme user, then synthesize these into a final product that serves a broader population. By designing first for extreme needs, the resulting product often proves more innovative and robust for all users than designs that start from average-case assumptions.