More about the user centred design process

The user centred design (UCD) process begins with the need for a product or service that addresses the needs of users; users are not an abstraction in this process but are flesh and blood humans, and so sometimes this process is also called human centred design.

By implication, a product that will meet the needs of potential human user customers ought to have their direct input into how it will meet as many needs as possible, including its interactivity. User requirements for optimal interactivity are taken into account from the beginning and incorporated into the evolving product at every stage of design. The success of this process is nearly inevitable and its only valid detraction is the expense involved. Yet every year, innumerable products and websites go to market that are not tested properly; sometimes this is disastrous.

There are several models and approaches to user centred design including the following:

• Cooperative design places designers and users are on equal footing. This is a tradition, which remains a specific strain of thought within UCD.
• Participatory design is similar to cooperative design, with a more North American orientation in the focus on users.
• Contextual design puts users within context of actually using the product.

Fallacies in some perceptions about the user-centred design process
None of these models is a userocracy, where the user determines every aspect of the product over design-centric considerations. The Simpsons' episode where Homer Simpson invents an auto from scratch shows the fallacy in this thinking. User centred design focuses on the needs of the user, not his or her whims and wants.

User centred design is, in the end, always about designing an excellent, elegant product that is human centred; and by this is meant all humans, including those who also understand the fundamental principles of design.