User-Centered Design (UCD)
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What it is
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a design approach that actively involves end users throughout design and development, aiming for a system that's usable, efficient, and pleasant to use
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The 5 stages (ISO 9241-210)
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plan the user-centered process — define the project's vision/scope, define target users and gather initial needs, choose UCD methods (interviews, surveys, observation, usability testing), build a roadmap/schedule, and prepare tools/resources/budget
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understand and specify the context of use — identify primary and secondary users, collect user data (interviews/surveys/observation), understand the environment and conditions of use, define user goals and pain points, build personas and user journey maps, and write usage scenarios
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specify the user requirements — analyze findings from the previous stage, distinguish functional (what the system must do) from non-functional (performance, security, accessibility, speed) requirements, write user stories or use cases, prioritize requirements (e.g. via MoSCoW), and produce a requirements document
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produce design solutions — generate design concepts, build wireframes and prototypes, define the information architecture/navigation, and design the UI (color, iconography, typography, layout) consistently
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evaluate the design against requirements — run usability testing (e.g. think-aloud protocol) with real users, gather feedback, analyze results to find friction points, iterate on the design, and check the result back against the requirements defined earlier — looping back to design if gaps remain
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Related
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