Whole Population
The whole population includes all people of all ages and capabilities. As mentioned before, it is un-realistic to regard the whole population as the target population for a product. For instance, legislative or safety requirements forbid people from using certain products, such as under-17s being forbidden from driving cars in the UK. Another group that may be excluded are those who, even under the most optimistic assessment, would be incapable of using the product/service for its intended purpose. This assessment should be completely solution-neutral. An example would be if the requirement was "to produce a product for making hot drinks." The exclusions under this requirement would be:
- unable to lift/manipulate any cup-size container of hot liquid
- unable to understand how to handle any cup-size container of hot liquid safely
- unable to distinguish correct cup-size container from other objects.
The resulting population following the removal of those who are prevented by law, safety considerations and irremediable lack of capability from using the product is the ideal population.