CS-582

Advance Human
Computer Interaction

Muhammad Adnan Kaim Khani

Department of Computer Sciences,
ILMA University, Karachi.

1
Contents

User-Centered Design Process

Reference No.1 Topic: User-Centered Design Process

What is User-Centered Design?

User-centred design (UCD) is a collection of processes that focus on

putting users at the center of product design and development.
You develop your digital product considering your user’s requirements,
objectives, and feedback.
A more formal definition is the one provided by the Interaction Design
Foundation.
Reference No.1 Topic: User-Centered Design Process

What is User-Centered Design?

User-centered design (UCD) is an iterative design process in which designers and

other stakeholders focus on the users and their needs in each phase of the design
process.
UCD calls for involving users throughout the design process via a variety of research
and design techniques to create highly usable and accessible products for them.
Reference No.1 Topic: User-Centered Design Process

User-Centered Design Principles

User-centered design is based on a few fundamental principles that can be applied to

the product design process:

•Users are involved in the design process from the very beginning. Critical design
decisions are evaluated based on how they work for end-users.

•Importance of requirement clarification. The product team always tries to align

business requirements with user’s needs.
Reference No.1 Topic: User-Centered Design Process

User-Centered Design Principles

• Introducing user feedback loop in the product life cycle. The product team collects
and analyzes feedback from users regularly. This information helps the team to make
more user-focused decisions.
• Iterative design process. The product team constantly works on improving user
experience; it introduces changes gradually as it gains more understanding about its
target audience.
Reference No.1 Topic: User-Centered Design Process
User-Centered Design and Design Process
Many product teams rely on the five-stage design process proposed by the Hasso-
Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (d.school). That process includes the
following stages:
• Empathize: This stage involves understanding the needs, experiences, and emotions
of the end-users.
• Designers gather insights through observations, interviews, and user research to
deeply understand the problem they are solving from the user's perspective.
• Define: In this stage, the information gathered during the Empathize phase is
synthesized to clearly define the problem.
• The goal is to create a clear problem statement or point of view (POV) that is user-
centered.
• Ideate: Once the problem is clearly defined, teams brainstorm and generate a wide
range of ideas and potential solutions. The focus is on creativity and thinking outside
the box, without immediately judging or filtering ideas.
Reference No.1 Topic: User-Centered Design Process

User-Centered Design and Design Process

Prototype: Here, teams create simple, low-fidelity versions of their ideas. These
prototypes can be anything from sketches to physical models, and their purpose is to
explore different solutions and concepts quickly and cheaply.

Test: In the final stage, the prototypes are tested with real users.
The goal is to gather feedback, learn what works and what doesn't, and refine the
solutions.
Testing often leads back to earlier stages, as new insights may prompt further empathy
work, redefinition of the problem, or new ideas.
Reference No.1 Topic: User-Centered Design Process

User-centered design can be applied to all stages of this process. Interaction Design
Foundation explains how requirement clarification can benefit the design process and
what process the team should follow to formulate the requirements better.
That process looks like this:
• Understand the context of its use:
• This step involves gaining a comprehensive understanding of the environment in
which the product or system will be used. It includes considering the users, their tasks,
and the overall ecosystem.
• The goal is to understand the real-world scenarios and constraints that will impact the
design. This can involve user research, contextual inquiry, and observation.
• Specify user requirements: After understanding the context, the next step is to clearly
define the user needs and requirements. This includes identifying the features,
functionalities, and performance criteria that the product or system must meet. These
requirements should be specific, measurable, and aligned with user expectations.
Reference No.1 Topic: User-Centered Design Process

Design a solution:
In this step, the actual design of the solution takes place. Based on the requirements,
teams create a detailed plan or blueprint of the product or system. This can involve
creating prototypes, wireframes (visual representations of a user interface), or models.
The design should address the user requirements and consider usability, aesthetics, and
functionality.
Evaluate against requirements: Once the solution is designed and possibly
implemented, it is tested and evaluated against the initial user requirements. This step
involves checking whether the solution meets the specified criteria, performs as
expected, and satisfies user needs. Evaluation can include user testing, feedback
collection, and performance analysis.
If the solution doesn't fully meet the requirements, it may need to be refined or
redesigned.
Reference No.1 Topic: User-Centered Design Process

What’s important to remember about UCD?

UCD is about turning empathy concepts into specific product requirements

Empathy-based concepts such as user’s thoughts, feelings, and frustrations take a
central stage in user-centered design.
Product designers should be able to turn empathy-based concepts into systematic
requirements such as the user’s goals and interaction habits something that a whole
team can use to build a product.
Reference No.1 Topic: User-Centered Design Process

No guessing, no personal opinions

Non-validated personal opinions about design (also known as personal bias) are
something that prevents designers from creating good design.
In UCD, every design decision should be implemented based on the information you have
about your users and validated during the process of testing.
Reference No.1 Topic: User-Centered Design Process

Involving all team members in product design

UCD works much better when a multidisciplinary team is taking part in the design
process.
When a team consists of people with different backgrounds and disciplines, it can
produce more creative design decisions.
Reference No.1 Topic: User-Centered Design Process

UCD and business

The environment where a team creates a solution has a tremendous impact on the
outcome. If the environment prioritizes business goals over those of its users, this
rarely ends up in creating truly user-centered products.
Thus, UCD requires changing the focus—from business goals to user needs.
In reality, product management should always try to achieve a balance between
business and user’ goals
Reference No.1 Topic: User-Centered Design Process

Conclusion

Every product development is a journey. The product team makes a lot of decisions along
the way, and the outcome is often defined by those decisions. If we prioritize user needs
and wants, and truly strive to create a user-focused design, our journey will end up with a
product that users will love.
References / Resources

• Designing Interactive Systems: A Comprehensive Guide to HCI, UX and Interaction

Design, Benyon, D

• https://www.booksfree.org/designing-interactive-systems-by-david-benyon-pdf/

• https://uxplanet.org/user-centered-design-process-and-benefits-fd9e431eb5a9