User-centered Design Method
User-centered design (UCD) is a project approach that puts the intended users of a site at the center of its design and development.
What is User-centered design?
User-centered design (UCD) is a project approach that puts the intended users of a site at the centre of its design and development. It does this by talking directly to the user at key points in the project to make sure the site will deliver upon their requirements.
The relationship between UCD and HCD (Human-centered design)
Simply put, all users are humans, but not all humans will be your users (you wish!). Thus, the user-centered design requires a deeper analysis of users — your target audience. It is not only about the general characteristics of a person; it is about the particular habits and preferences of target users to come up with the right solutions for specific problems.
The user-centered design takes into account age, gender, social status, education and professional background, influential factors, product usage expectations and demands and many other vital things that may vary for different segments. User-centered design is about deep research on users’ habits, from their interactions with the product to their vision of how the product should look and behave.
Why do user-centered design?
User-centered design is the only design methodology that puts users at the heart of the design process. It is, therefore, ideally suited to developing products or websites that must be simple and straightforward to use. It helps to understand users’ needs and preferences regarding features of a product, task, goals, user flows, etc. At the end of the day, it has become one of the most critical user experience requirements — that of being user-centered.
The Essential Elements of User-Centered Design
- Visibility: Users should be able to see from the beginning what they can do with the product, what it is about, how they can use it.
- Accessibility: Users should be able to find information easily and quickly. They should be offered various ways to find information, for example, call-to-action buttons, search options, menus, etc.
- Legibility: Text should be easy to read. As simple as that.
- Language: Short sentences are preferred here. The easier the phrase and the words, the better.
User-Centered Design Process
According to Userfocus, multiple principles underlie user-centered design. The design is based upon an explicit understanding of users, tasks, and environments, is driven and refined by user-centered evaluation; and addresses the whole user experience.
The following are the general phases of the UCD process:
- Specify the context of use: Identify the people who will use the product, what they will use it for, and under what conditions they will use it.
- Specify requirements: Identify any business requirements or user goals that must be met for the product to be successful.
- Create design solutions: This part of the process may be done in stages, building from a rough concept to a complete design.
- Evaluate designs: Evaluation — ideally through usability testing with actual users — is as integral as quality testing is to good software development.
These users’ requirements are found and defined through focus groups, usability testing, card sorting, participatory design, questionnaires, and interviews. Typically, the following areas are analyzed to get a better idea of what your target users want:
- Persona: To visualize it better, a persona is created at the beginning of the process to have an example of a target whom you are trying to reach. You can even come up with the name. It represents a group with the same patterns: behaviour, needs, goals, skills, attitudes, etc. Persona helps to make right decisions about product features, navigation, interactions, visual design and much more. It helps you prioritize the design work, understanding what the user needs and what functions are simply nice to add and have.
- Scenario: It is a “daily life of” your target, of your persona. It is about problems persona has. Here, small details, both emotional and physical ones, matter.
- Use case: It is a series of steps for the persona to achieve the goal.
User-Centered Design and Agile
Here, you will see some advantages brought about by the incorporation of user-centered design with an Agile methodology:
- Customer Focus: All activities are focused on the user on his/her needs by providing value through ensuring a useful, usable and engaging product.
- Iterative Development: Early and frequent delivery of working software contributes to project visibility, reduces project risk via regular feedback, encourages continuous improvement and enables the early realization of business benefits time to market.
- Testing: Testing plays an integral role in every project lifecycle phase. User testing is crucial for designing a product to ensure you are working on the right thing at the right time.
- Transparency: Marc McNeill states that all stakeholders are provided with maximum visibility into project progress.
- Cost reduction: Costs are reduced because users can understand and use products without additional help. There is also a reduction in training costs. Moreover, spending time and money on redoing things is unnecessary.
- Higher customer satisfaction: At the end of the day, the user receives what they want and how they want. You guarantee increased sales as you deliver what is requested in your target market.
- Risk reduction: As you work hand in hand with your user, you are sure you are going in the right direction.
- Productivity: As you always do what your user wants, there is less need to spend time on unnecessary things or features that users will not use or like.
References
https://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/user-centered-design.htm
https://usabilitygeek.com/user-centered-design-introduction/
https://www.userfocus.co.uk/consultancy/ucd.html
