Design Essay
User centred design
Introduction
Nowadays, User Centered Design has been embedded in many design works. This essay seeks to explore the nature of this approach. This essay is split in to four sections.
The first section is to provide a definition for User Centered Design while the second section will explain the benefits of using this approach with examples. I will then move on to discuss the limitations of User Centered Design and a conclusion will come afterwards.
What is User Centred Design?
User Centred Design is an approach which aims at increasing the usability of products, and therefore making them more effective in meeting users ' needs. This approach requires the designer to focus on the users throughout 'The planning, design and development of the product. ' (UPA resources, no date) Norman (1999) described user centred design as 'Transforming difficult tasks into easy ones. ' It requires the designer to study the users before designing.
User Centred Design approach often requires a great deal of involvement from the users during the process. Carrying out this approach often includes collecting end users ' opinion right before the start of the project, as well as during the design process, and designing with them. The objective of this is to allow the designers to have a good understanding of the subjects who will use the product. Therefore, good interaction between designers and users is the key under this approach.
UCD is widely recognized and there is an international standard which serves as a benchmark and a guideline. International standard ISO 13047:Human-centered design process outlines the 5 stages of a typical UCD design, which are identifying need for human centered design, specifying the context of use, specifying requirements, creating design solutions and evaluating designs. (UPA Resources, no date) These steps define only general procedures but not exact methods. In fact, these standards do not outline how each phrase should be
Introduction
Nowadays, User Centered Design has been embedded in many design works. This essay seeks to explore the nature of this approach. This essay is split in to four sections.
The first section is to provide a definition for User Centered Design while the second section will explain the benefits of using this approach with examples. I will then move on to discuss the limitations of User Centered Design and a conclusion will come afterwards.
What is User Centred Design?
User Centred Design is an approach which aims at increasing the usability of products, and therefore making them more effective in meeting users ' needs. This approach requires the designer to focus on the users throughout 'The planning, design and development of the product. ' (UPA resources, no date) Norman (1999) described user centred design as 'Transforming difficult tasks into easy ones. ' It requires the designer to study the users before designing.
User Centred Design approach often requires a great deal of involvement from the users during the process. Carrying out this approach often includes collecting end users ' opinion right before the start of the project, as well as during the design process, and designing with them. The objective of this is to allow the designers to have a good understanding of the subjects who will use the product. Therefore, good interaction between designers and users is the key under this approach.
UCD is widely recognized and there is an international standard which serves as a benchmark and a guideline. International standard ISO 13047:Human-centered design process outlines the 5 stages of a typical UCD design, which are identifying need for human centered design, specifying the context of use, specifying requirements, creating design solutions and evaluating designs. (UPA Resources, no date) These steps define only general procedures but not exact methods. In fact, these standards do not outline how each phrase should be
Bibliography: NORMAN, Donald. Emotional Design: Why we hate love (or hate) Everyday things, The MIT Press. 2004 NORMAN, Donald