UX CAPSTONE

USER CENTERED DESIGNa.k.a. Human Centered Design

USER CENTERED DESIGN (UCD)

a framework of processes (not restricted to interfaces or technologies) in which the needs, wants, and limitations of end users of a product, service or process are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process.

SIX PRINCIPLES OF UCD

01. the design is based upon an explicit understanding of users, tasks and environments.

SIX PRINCIPLES OF UCD

02. users are involved throughout design and development.

SIX PRINCIPLES OF UCD

03. the design is driven and refined by user-centered evaluation.

SIX PRINCIPLES OF UCD

04. the process is iterative.

SIX PRINCIPLES OF UCD

05. the design addresses the whole user experience.

SIX PRINCIPLES OF UCD

06. the design team includes multidisciplinary skills and perspectives.

MASLOWS HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

Based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the idea of a design hierarchy of needs rests on the assumption that in order to be successful, a design must meet basic needs before it can satisfy higher-level needs.

FUNCTIONAL

RELIABLE

USABLE

CONVENIENT

PLEASURABLE

MEANINGFUL

MEETS UNRECOGNIZED NEEDS

(transformation)

MEETS DESIRES

(success)

MEETS EXPECTATIONS

(survival)

DESIGN HIERARCHY

COGNITIVE LOAD

The level of effort associated with thinking and reasoning (including perception, memory, language, etc.), thus potentially interfering with other thought processes.

A user interface strives to minimize the cognitive load associated with operating the interface itself so that all of a person’s cognitive resources are available for their task.

PROCESSES OF COGNITION

AttentionPerceptionMemoryLearningReading, speaking and listeningProblem solving, planning, reasoning and decision making

MENTAL MODELS

represents a person’s thoughts and associations about a particular subject, affecting behavior and the way certains topics and issues are approached.

*Individual users have their own mental model.

experiences, intuitive ideas and perceptions, incomplete, constantly evolving

ACTING ON MENTAL MODELS

When you see people make mistakes on your site, the reason is often because they’ve formed an erroneous mental model.

Options

1. You can teach users a more accurate mental model at an earlier stage of the user experience.

2. you might have to acknowledge that users won’t understand certain distinctions and then stop making those distinctions.

CONCEPTUAL MODEL

the actual model that is given to the user through the interface of the product.

METAPHORS AND ANALOGIES convey to people how to understand what the product is for and how to use it.

CONCEPTS that people are exposed to throughout the product.

RELATIONSHIPS between concepts.

How the various metaphors, concepts and their relationships are organized determines the user experience.

EXERCISE

TASK ANALYSIS matching mental models to conceptual models

01. DEFINE THE PROBLEM

The reason task analysis is so critical to the success of a product is that it accurately defines the users’ problems. You can’t accurately solve a problem until you just as accurately define it. The typical mistake most product teams make is to ardently believe that they already know the users’ problems.

.02 WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN YOUR RESEARCH?

THE IGNITION POINT. What is it that prompts a user to begin a task?

THE FOCUS POINT. What is it that will tell the user that the task is finished?

WHAT DO THEY ALREADY KNOW? What knowledge does the average user have when they begin the task?

WHAT DO THEY NEED TO KNOW? In order to reach the focus point what additional knowledge will the user require?

WHAT DO THEY USE? Which tools, processes or information will the user utilize during the completion of the task?

.03 DOCUMENT THE TASK FLOW

Creating a task flow is a pretty easy job. The best place to start is with a bunch of sticky notes and to document the high-level processes first and then gradually document the more involved tasks following that. You can use coloured sticky-notes to group your task elements:

USER GROUPS actions that the user will carry out

SYSTEM GROUPS actions that the system can carry out for the user

OBJECT/TOOL/INFORMATION GROUPS requirements of the user to carry out the action

QUESTION GROUPS any unresolved questions or difficulties associated with the task

.04 OPTIMIZE THE TASK

Your goal is to eliminate as many steps in the task flow as possible. Start at the focus point of the task and work backwards through it. If you can’t eliminate a step then you want to try and switch any action is a user group to one in a system group (e.g. automate for efficiency).

Wherever possible you want to remove complexity from the process. Having said that, you don’t want to over-simplify either – your objective is to get your user to their focus point through each set of processes you provide for them. Don’t remove functionality if it prevents the user from achieving their goal.