What is User-centered Design?

Everything in our world, from products to degrees to careers– they’re all evolving at a tremendous speed. It's unsettling to think that recent college grads will be filling jobs that currently don’t exist by the time they enter the workforce.

We’ve seen this evolution play out significantly in the business world. Companies are no longer pushing their products onto the market without first ensuring they’re useful to the target audience. Instead, we are seeing an emphasis on the consumer, making it possible to tailor the product to specific needs and desires. 

People's entire careers shifted because of this move. For instance, there were many sales jobs available only a few years ago, nowadays you're more likely to find ones focused on people. This includes employment in areas like human-centered innovation and user-centered design. This pattern is evident in all businesses that support innovation, including rapidly expanding startups and large organizations. Even top institutions and colleges, including Stanford, MIT, IESE, and Esade, have begun incorporating user-centered design into their program.

What is user-centered design? 

User-centered design (or UCD for short) is an iterative design approach in which designers constantly prioritize the user and their needs. It is the process of creating a website or product with the end user in mind, rather than forcing them to change their habits or perspective to work with the product. The goal is to provide a service or good that reinforces the users' preexisting worldview, values, beliefs, and way of life. 

UCD design teams actively use a wide range of research and design methods to include end-users in every stage of the process. They employ both exploratory techniques (like interviews and surveys) and creative ones (like brainstorming) to learn about and meet end-user requirements. This ensures that the resulting products are both effective and accessible.

The term was first used in the 1970s. Later, Don Norman, a specialist in cognitive science and usability engineering, used the term in his extensive efforts to enhance the user experience. The concept gained popularity in part because of Norman's writings, such as User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction (written with Stephen W. Draper) and The Design of Everyday Things (originally titled The Psychology of Everyday Things).

User-centered design (UCD) vs User Experience (UX)

While user-centered design refers to a methodology that puts the user at the center of the design and development process and focuses on the approach taken to build experiences, "user experience" refers to the actual experiences the customers have with a company's offerings. It can also refer to how a service or product is perceived and used by its end users rather than to any specific process.

Empathy is the foundation of good design, and the UCD method helps companies and user experience designers understand and care about their potential users. The designers iteratively return to the value proposition they've developed, which is based on the alignment between user and business goals, throughout the UCD process. By doing this, they can create products that meet and exceed the user’s expectations, saving both time and money in the long run.

The Principles of User-Centered Design

There are five major principles of User-centered design

1. An in-depth understanding of the user's needs and the requirements of the task at hand.

2. incorporating user input and feedback into the specification of needs and design.

3. Early and active user participation in product design evaluation.

4. Combining user-centered design with other phases of product creation.

5. Iterative design process

The cost of making changes to the design towards the end of the process is often ten times higher than if it had been made during the requirements phase. Feedback and analysis are essential. By following these principles, and focusing on the needs of the end user from the start of the design and development process, you can ensure that you are creating products that sell.

The Essential Features of User-Centered Design

• Visibility: From the get-go, consumers must have a clear understanding of the product's purpose, scope, and functionality.

• Accessibility: Users need to be able to swiftly and easily access whatever information they need. There should be several options for them to locate the data they need (search bar, menu, direct action buttons, etc.).

• Legibility: All visual elements, including text and images, ought to be clear and easy to read. 

• Language: Sentences should be kept brief. The simpler the words and the phrases, the better.

The User-Centered Design Process

User-centered design is an iterative process that begins with defining the final consumers of the website, app, or product and the conditions under which it will be used. The primary goal is to determine the users' motivations for purchasing and using your product.

After this, you'll need to categorize your data to create a list of specifications and user objectives that must be accomplished in order to fulfill the needs of potential users.

Usability testing, Focus groups, participatory design, card sorting, interviews, and questionnaires are just some of the tools that can be used to identify and specify the needs of the target audience. It is common practice to examine the following factors in order to better understand your target audience's needs:

1. Persona: You should create personas at the start of the process to serve as an example of your target audience. This helps you visualize the process more clearly. Those who fit into each profile share commonalities in their behavior, needs, aspirations, abilities, and perspectives, and the profile serves as a representation of that group. Decisions about the product's functionality, navigation, interactions, visual design, and more can all be improved with the aid of personas. You can better prioritize the design effort by learning what features are essential for the user and which ones are simply just great to have.

2. Scenario: A representation of a day in the life of your persona or target audience. It focuses on the challenges your persona experiences. Here, little things—both physical and emotional—matter.

3. Use cases: It's a methodical process that your persona follows to accomplish anything.

The method addresses important questions about them, their jobs, ambitions, and values. During the process, you may need to answer any or all of the following questions: 

• Who is the target audience? 

• What are their goals? 

• What are their needs? 

• What are they passionate about? 

• What steps do they take in completing a task?

• Where do they often go?

• How clear are your product's instructions for making the most of its use?

• How much time do they spend figuring out what they need to do? etc.

You only begin designing potential solutions after completing these processes and answering some or more of these questions. The design process will involve several iterations, with each one refining the previous one.

As you begin the cycle of creating a website, mobile app, or product development, think about what you hope to achieve. In the end, you'll need to assess the effectiveness of the product you've created by conducting tests with actual customers. This process needs to be repeated numerous times in order to provide the best possible design.

The benefits of user-centered design?

The user-centered design (UCD) process is iterative, which can make investing in it appear like a waste of time and money. Companies will need to allocate substantial funds to user research, many rounds of usability testing, and any subsequent iterative design and development. But UCD's long-term benefits are well worth the initial investment. Here’s why: 

• Risk and cost-reduction

Close collaboration with end users ensures you build things they'll actually use. Therefore, businesses will save resources because they won't have to spend as much time or money fixing mistakes or teaching customers how to use their products.

• Stronger sense of empathy

Empathy helps designers make things that significantly improve people's lives. Companies can create products that are inclusive, accessible, ethical, and potentially life-changing by using the UCD approach to learn about and understand their users.

• Higher customer satisfaction

Through the UCD process, businesses are compelled to prioritize the wants and needs of end users in creating new products. Maintaining this user-centered mindset can boost customer satisfaction, which in turn can boost user engagement and ultimately sales.

• Increase in productivity

With UCD, the end-user is involved at every stage of development. Therefore, designers are less likely to second-guess their decisions or waste time and effort on features that won't be used.

• Engages all team members

Using the UCD process ensures that all team members are on the same page and provides stakeholders with transparent updates on the project's development. Working with a group of experts from several fields can result in more well-rounded and practical results.

Conclusion

The application of user-centered design to your process will yield a product that provides a more effective, fulfilling, and user-friendly experience, which, as you might expect, will result in greater sales and customer loyalty.

CS Pro Media is an industry-leading UX research and web design agency that provides comprehensive services at affordable rates. We provide innovative solutions that will take your business to the next level. Please get in touch with us today if you have any questions.