1.3.  Today’s Development Practices in Ubiquitous and Wearable Computing 5 ubiquitous and wearable technologies could be introduced into real world scenar- ios and if they were used on a larger scale, this could help identify and face more fundamental challenges of human-computer interaction. It also would increase the relevance of ubiquitous and wearable computing, as real users could experience and recognize the achievements of ubiquitous and wearable computing research. In re- turn research could incorporate user feedback at a larger scale to better focus on technically important and socially relevant issues. “You achieve better results with prototypes in Ubicomp.” ( [ Liu and Khooshabeh 2003 ] ) Prototypes have proved useful during a variety of industrial and research develop- ments.  They o er a good way of mediation between developers and users.  Even if not yet fully functional, prototypes can embody a behavioral representation of the desired requirements.  Users can play and interact with prototypes, and refine their needs based on the gained experience. [ Schrage 2004 ] even postulates:  “Never go to a client without a prototype”. “The user is not a designer. Studies have shown that users designs are generally inferior to those of professionals.” [ Webb 1996 ] Nevertheless, since ubiquitous and wearable computing is not yet common place, ex- pressed user needs have to be thoroughly reviewed:  Users may not yet be ready to envision the patterns of use and real-world conditions of future ubiquitous and wear- able computing systems.  The context of usage is di cult to convey with prototypes, since prototypes mainly represent system functionality.  Ultimately however, ubiq- uitous and wearable computing cannot envision only self-contained and stand-alone systems,  but have to become part of a usage domain in real world environments. Compared to classical computer desktop scenarios, pervasive applications are more di cult to build and to prototype.  Idea generation and development for ubiquitous and wearable computing applications has proved the necessity of involving di erent expertise from user domains, but guided by the developers.  However, this puts a burden on sharing information between domains, i.e.  developers and representative samples  of  users.   This  means  that  each  party  should  be  enabled  to  utilize  their familiar concepts but simultaneously relate to the language used by experts of other fields [ Ranta  and  Asplund  2003 ] .   The  user  is  not  a  designer,  but  he  should  be exploited as rich source of information regarding usage and interaction patterns. The  goal  of  this  thesis  is  hence  to  find  a  method  that  helps  to  develop  innova- tive ubiquitous and wearable computing applications by a deliberate and balanced integration of users’ and other stakeholders’ feedback into the development process.