Week6 User Centred Design (UCD)

Well, this week lecture are talk about UCD.
What is UCD?
UCD- User Centred Design
User-centered design (UCD) is an approach to design that grounds the process in information about the people who will use the product. UCD processes focus on users through the planning, design and development of a product.
















What is simplicity?

• Designing for simplicity is a process of elimination
• Simplicity forces you to have a good reason for everything
• In film, it is called FORESHADOWING:
  "simplicity is not simple"
  

According to Albert Einstein, " if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough". So, if you have anything for your design, there must be a purpose.

What is Chunking?

• Element of perception+ memory
• Take information and put in category
• Presentation of information is simplified by dividing it up
• Bite size for easy storage
• Forming chunks in working memory depends on how information is presented.

Contrast?
Differences along a visual dimension( size/colour)

Visual Variables?

• Used to communicate
  -by encoding data + drawing distinction between visual element.
• 2 ways that visual variables work on perception
  1. Selectivity
  2. Associativity

1. Selectivity:

• Degree to which a single value can be selected from the entire visual field
• Using position, size, orientation, hue, value, texture
• most variables are selective
• Shape, however is not selective in general.

2. Associativity:Opposite of selectivity

Gestalt Principles

• Proximity
• Similarity
• Continuity
• Closure
• Area
• Symmetry

System Centered Design : System Attributes first
User Centered Design : Human Attributes first

UCD in a words? - Participatory Design (it involve user to design)

Difficulties of UCD?

• Good design not always satisfied customers
• Design is a collaboration between designers and customers
• If the input from user is wrong, then the system will suffer
• Misunderstanding
• interviews are not precise
• User are first class members in the design process
  -active collaborators vs passive participants
• User considered to know best about the subject matter
  -to know all about the work context
• Iterative process
  -all design stages subject to revision.

Method of Involving the user?

TALK TO THEM!

• site visits
• interview
• prototyping
• focus groups
• direct observations
• indirect observations
• studying documentation

The problem of users

• Hard to get a good pool of end users to test your product (expensive)
• User are not expert designers (don't expect them to come up with design ideas from scratch)
• User is not always right! ( don't expect they know what they want)

Reference :

Lecture class

http://www.upassoc.org/usability_resources/about_usability/what_is_ucd.html