User Centred Design - Focus on Usability Criteria
The key concept that is drilled into every single UX practitioner is that the User comes first. And as such, we need to incorporate a User-Centred Design approach to make our products as intuitive and natural as possible.
Elements of User-Centred Design:
- Active involvement of users.
- Clear understanding of User Requirements, Tasks, and Environments.
- Allocation of function between Users and Technology.
- Iteration of Design Solutions - build on previous designs.
- Validation Testing with Users.
- Multi-Disciplinary Design.
- Encompasses Entire User Experience.
Function Allocation - which tasks to allocate to the user and which to the machine. Humans are better at deciding and machines are better at calculating.
Focusing on Usability Criteria:
Improving the user experience is about measuring and improving:
- Effectiveness - Can users achieve what they need by using the product?
- Ease of Learning - How fast can users who have never seen the interface learn to use it?
- Efficiency of Use - How fast can users compete tasks?
- Memorability - Can users remember enough to reuse the interface effectively?
- Error Prevention - Can users complete tasks without making errors?
- Satisfaction - How much do users like using the system?
Conclusion:
Understanding user needs is a challenge that is rewarding.
- Martin (1983) (link) - 80% of maintenance comes from unforeseen and/or unmet user requirements.
- Gilb (1988) Principles Of Software Engineering Management - Every $1 invested in UX returns between $2 and $100.
Bosert (1991) Quality Function Deployment: The Practitioner's Approach - Usability techniques helped cut development time by 33-50%.
- Lederer & Prassad (1992) (link) - 63% of software projects exceeded their estimates because:
- Frequent requests for change by users.
- Users’ lack of understanding their own requirements.
- Pressman (1992) (link) - 80% of software lifecycle costs occur during the maintenance phase.
Cost and quality dramatically improve with more contacts with customers/users.
Keil and Carmel (1995) Customer - Developer Links in Software Development (link):
- Successful projects had more contact with users.
- Only one unsuccessful project had direct contact with users.
- No successful project lacked direct contact with users.
Looking at this data, it's quite clear that a User-Centred approach should be the core focus of any project, regardless of the medium, mode, or delivery.
These are the simplest, most basic building blocks of creating a design that not only caters to the user's needs, but also makes their experience with your product and brand as smooth and effortless as possible.