Every designer dreams of creating a product that users love - taking a user-centred design (UCD) approach is possibly the most effective way to achieve this goal. But what actually constitutes UCD and what makes it so important? Read below to find out more!
What is User-Centred Design?
The clue is in the name - the user is at the centre of the design process. This means that the user is considered at every stage, from the initial idea to the final product. This works iteratively, whereby the user is consulted over and over again to ensure the design specifically meets their needs and overcomes any potential barriers. The theory behind this process is sound but in reality designers are almost always constrained by deadlines. As such, designers should attempt to iterate as much as they can within their given timeframe.
I have personally taken this approach during my time as an MSc Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) student at UCL and found it to be extremely effective. It enables you to empathise with the user as instead of guessing how a user may use your product, you directly see how they would like to/want to use your product.
What are the principles of UCD?
The Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford have identified a five-stage design process which enables design thinking:
1). Empathise
Understanding the needs, barriers, aspirations and attitudes of your users is the first step to designing a product/solution that is user-centred. You can achieve this by utilising different data collection techniques, such as qualitative surveys and semi-structured interviews.
2). Define
Having put yourself in the shoes of your users, you now need to analyse your observations and synthesise them to define the core problems you have identified. During previous projects, I, alongside colleagues, have achieved this by conducting affinity mapping where you use sticky notes to group potential needs together to identify meta-needs. To visually capture these core needs and requirements, it is then highly recommended to create personas.
3) Ideate
Now it is time to think of potential ideas. It is of great importance to try and think outside the box to be creative! There are many UX tools to utilise in order to achieve this. For instance, crazy 8s force you to create 8 potential ideas in 8 minutes.
4) Prototype
This is where you start to create your actual solutions, having identified numerous ideas. This stage is inherently experimental, so do not be afraid to take risks! To avoid becoming attached to early prototypes, it is good to make them low-fidelity as this does not require much time. For instance, you could create paper prototypes which can easily be thrown in the bin if they are not viable.
5) Test
How do we know if our solution work...? We test them! This could be in the form of think-alouds, whereby users actively evaluate your design when using it. As previously mentioned, UCD is iterative. So, it is common practice for designers to repeat this process over and over again.
The importance of staying scientific
Even though designing may feel like a complete creative mess, it is important to stay rigorous with the methods you use. As such, your decisions need to be driven by the data you gather. For instance, when collecting interview data you need to ensure you analyse the data using appropriately validated methods such as conducting a thematic analysis. This should prevent you from designing for yourself and should instead result in you designing for your target demographic.
An example of using a UCD approach:
Dr Sam:
Dr Sam was created during my time as an MSc Human-Computer Interaction at University College London (UCL). In short, it was a hypothetical sexual health centre located within the dating app Tinder that informed users about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and their corresponding window periods.
To ensure this design idea was informed by potential users, we first conducted preliminary interviews and qualitative surveys to understand whether our target demographic (individuals aged 18-30) would want to access sexual health information both digitally and through dating apps. Overwhelmingly, we found that users often worried about their sexual health when using dating apps and would appreciate sexual health information being incorporated within them.
With this information, we then analysed our interview and qualitative survey data to identify the key needs and potential barriers of our user group. This was achieved using affinity mapping within Miro (an online whiteboard) as this allowed us to do work collectively and remotely. Once key needs and barriers were identified, we then created a primary, secondary and tertiary persona. The purpose of persona creation was to empathise with our user group further and to create a visual design representation that effectively captured our user needs and requirements. This process allowed us to define our user core problem which was a lack of sexual health information within mainstream dating apps. These can be seen below.
The next step of our UCD process was to ideate. To ensure divergent thinking, we utilised creative UX methods. For example, we partook in a crazy 8s session that lasted 8 minutes. We each had 1 minute to think of 8 potential ways to convey sexual health information through dating apps. After these 8 minutes, we each then had a few minutes to discuss and reflect on our design ideas. These reflections enabled us to rank our identified features from good to bad concerning our user's needs and requirements. To represent this visually, we created a 2 x 2 matrix with the y-axis representing feasibility and the x-axis representing how informative each feature was (or was not).
Having identified core design features, such as incorporating a FAQs section and a short video section within the sexual health centre, we started to prototype. However, before creating a digital prototype, I drew low-fidelity wireframes which were provided to a small group of potential users (who were part of the early interviews) to ensure that our ideas were in-line with their needs and requirements. After these ideas were validated, I worked with one other team member to create our first digital prototype within Adobe XD. This was by no means the finished product, but it allowed users to navigate across different features on their phones.
With the first prototype created, we then tested it with users. To measure its effectiveness we conducted think-aloud studies, where users were asked to share their thoughts when using Dr. Sam. This allowed us to identify what worked well and what did not. Exit interviews were then conducted to probe these thoughts further. Finally, we applied this feedback to our first prototype and created a second one that better represented our user's needs and requirements. We would have liked to iterate further but were constrained by the time limits of our university course and deadlines. A video of the final product can be seen below.
So, why is UCD important?
I hope this blog has answered this question, but to reiterate UCD enables you to design products and experiences that are suited specifically to the needs, barriers and requirements of your user's group. It prevents you from designing what you think your users need and enables your users to become active in the design process.
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