UITTL (pronounced like "whittle)

UITTL is a methodology for user-informed technology invention. It combines ethnographic research with innovative technology prototyping. Clients who make use of UITTL are typically corporate research centers and R&D groups, but also small start-up companies have benefitted from the "sanity check" of a business plan that a UITTL process can provide. A description of the approach can be found in this paper .

UITTL can be used in several phases of a scientific exploration process: it may be "front loaded" and help scientists orient their thinking towards areas with greatest impact of their inventions; and it may be "back loaded" by providing an alignment of a "raw" technology to specific usage situations.

The UITTL processes have been used by several US technology research labs, and they have proven most valuable both in inspiring entirely new research areas and bringing about better, more plausible stories in support of the scientific technology development - and they do so without constraining research (this is a worry frequently expressed by scientist - before they get to try the UITTL approach). Below is an illustration of a typical 6-months UITTL process.

UITTL is the acronym of "usage informed technology transfer and licensing". Since its inception as a methodology in 2002 it has proven successful beyond technology transfer, most importantly in early phases of scientific research where it provides inspiration and grounding for basic technology research. However, we still use the original acronym.

The UITTL methodology was compiled from best practices by Jeanette Blomberg and Elin Pedersen, based on their backgrounds in anthropology and computer science, and their combined work experience from leading high-tech research centers and consulting firms.