Week 6 / Fifth Lecture: User Centred Design [Weiting]

What is User-centred Design?

UCD shifts focus from the designers of the application/system/web site to the user of that application/system/web site. UCD us also a participatory design.

According to Usability Professionals' Association [http://www.upassoc.org/usability_resources/about_usability/

what_is_ucd.html ], user-centered design (UCD) is an approach to design that grounds the process in information about the people who will use the product. UCD processes focus on users through the planning, design and development of a product. It is also an international standard.

User-centred Design is 

• Developers working with target users
• help define what the system will do & how
• lots of iterative exploration & feedback
• Think of the world in users terms
• user & customer not the same person 
• don’t design for manager’s work process
• Understanding work process
• points where humans and computers intersect
• Not technology-centered/ feature driven

--- User-Centered Design, CS 160, Fall ‘99, Professor James Landay (August 25, 1999)

http://dub.washington.edu:2007/courses/bmrc-courseware/cs160/fall99/lectures/user-centered-design/user-centered-design.pdf

**PS :  The difference between "user" and "customer" is that user are those who will use and buy the product of yours while customer is those who are from any company that the nature of business is highly related  or relevant to your design project [derived from Human Factor and Universal Usability class].

In a meanwhile, from my own understanding, User-centred Design can be defined as :

• Design for human fit-ness / design in the priority to fit for human use.
• A ergonomics design.
• A design that fulfill the human's need.
• Design in the centered of users priority.

Difficulties of UCD : 

• Good design not always = a satisfied customer.
• Design is a collaboration between designers + customers.
• Design evolves.
• If the input from user is wrong, then the system will suffer.