DT Topic 7: User Centered Design

Key Principles of UCD

-UCD is based on a deep understanding of users, tasks, environments -users are involved throughout the design and development -UCD process is irritative driven by the user and developed through user centered evaluation -UCD teams are multidisciplinary -UCD is inclusive (includes as many people as possible (disabilities and such) -multidisciplinary teams

Classification of Users

-age -gender -physical condition

Enhanced Usability

-product acceptance -user acceptance -productivity -user error (this is eliminated with simpler controls) -training and support

User Product Interfaces

-simplicity and ease of use -intuitive logic and organization -low memory burden -visibility -feedback -affordance -constraints -mapping

Attract/Converse/Transact Model

ACT model can be used as a framework to create designs that intentionally trigger positive emotion changes attract - aesthetics converse - interaction transact - function

Four Pleasure Framework

Sociopleasure - a pleasure from relationships with others Physiopleasure - pleasures connected with taste, smell, touch and such Psychopleasure - peoples mental and emotional reactions to products Ideopleasure -satisfying peoples tastes, values etc.

Users, Tasks, Environments

UCD is a process that pays particular attention to understanding the users needs, wants and limitations, understanding what the task is and the environment it will be in 'empathetic design', UCD puts the design team in direct contact with the people they are designing for

Focus Groups

a small group of people that participate in a disucssion about a certain topic or product

Affinity Diagraming

a technique for understanding information by grouping and placing related items together, participants transfer their ideas on pieces of paper and then sort them into themes

Questionairres

data collected by user's responses to questions

Use Case

define user interaction with products and systems, detailing both human behaviors and system response in a text or diagram

Personae and Scenarios in User Research

designers could observe members of a user population to create a fictional character known as a personae (typical stakeholders) secondary personae are not the target audience, but they do provide alternative feedback anti personae are those whom the product is not designed for

Inclusive Design

designing for those with disabilities and such; designing products that are accessible and usable by any person

Usability Testing

evaluating a product or service by testing it with typical users while observers watch

Iterative Process

five stages: 1. research 2. concept 3. design 4. implementation 5. launch it is an iterative process where every step is evaluated against the initially identified requirements of the users and are iterated until met through: -usability testing, observations, focus groups, concept models, prototypes, competitor comparisons

Designing for Emotion

increases user engagement, loyalty and satisfaction of a product by incorporating emotion and personality

Whole User Experience

products can be designed to evoke pleasure and emotion, a product needs to address both the functional and psychological and emotional

Field Research

qualitative method of data collection aimed at understanding and interacting with people in their natural settings: observation and interviews

Population Stereotypes

responses that are found to be widespread between user populations are stereotypes, eg. certain controls and their functions

Method of Extremes

sample users used to represent the extremes of the user population plus one or two intermediate values

User Population

the range of users for a particular product or system

Usability Objectives

to produce products that have a high degree of usability a usable product is useful, learnable and accessible, allowing specified users to achieve specific goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction 1. usefulness - to what extent the product helps users achieve their goals, an assessment to test the users willingness to use it 2.efficiency - how quickly you can perform a task with the product 3. effectiveness - how well a product does its job and is measured by error rate 4. learnability - the higher the learnability, the higher the adoption rate 5. attitude - feelings towards the product