What does user centered design mean?

What does user centered design mean?

User centered design is a term used to talk about processes that address user characteristics, habits or preferences when designing a product. In a sense, user centered design is what user centered design sounds like: people design the product around the user’s needs, rather than the user meeting the design.

The User Centered Process

Experience design is an iterative process. User Centered Design does not stop when an application or Web site is delivered. Monitor the website continuously and embed it into the process. The market changes, user needs change, so does the effectiveness of your application.

• Stand behind the principles of user centered design
• Set your goals
• Test, monitor and evaluate (as shown above)
• Understand the user (and his behavior)
• Surpass the competition (analyze competing websites, which scenarios can be distinguished)
• Monitor the overall user experience
• Bring the user to life
• Balance the playing field between user, technology and business objectives

Why user centered design?

• Stay in touch with your consumer
• Keeps you on your toes (site analysis)
• Increases profitability (improved funnels)
• Positive WOMMA (appeals to the target group)
• Reduces time to market
• Decreasing total cost per order
• Increased customer satisfaction

Gather knowledge about the User expectations

• Put yourself in the shoes of the consumer
• Realize how much experience the user has with the product.
• Clarify what happens after the click.
• Consider the product as an appliance. When the red light on the coffee maker is on, the device is working. If you plug it in, then you have power. Easy does it, but approach your application or Web site with this in mind.
• Are the expectations from the ads being met?
• Avoid jargon

Analyze the user

• Use an impartial project manager who can think freely from the user’s point of view.
• Have the right measurement tools. Dive into statistics, request benchmark data, compare how the product is sold in stores, for example.
• Use the right observational techniques (multivariate testing, expert reviews, lab tests, heatmaps, etc)
• As mentioned, create an archetype, a user profile based on Personas. Hang these profiles on the wall, name them and make sure it lives within the development team and the rest of the company.
• Define tasks and scenarios (consider what alternative click paths the user takes on his way to performing a task).
• Ask him what he needs in order to best fulfill his needs. Or: observe the errors/error messages he encounters while performing his task or test scenarios.

Start qualitative research such as focus groups, card sort research (when you want to logically group your data), A/B/C testing or scenario testing.

Keep it Simple:

The number of clicks to complete your task is not important. What matters is that as a user, you are going down the right path with as few errors as possible. Don’t cram as many bullits or information as possible into one step.

Analyze your funnel, take out what can be taken out. Much text or explanation originates from the organization, not from the user need. Get to the heart of the message.

Use should be easy, not the development process. Start from the convenience of the consumer and don’t get distracted by complexity in the development process. That should never be leading.

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