Intro to user centered design

intro to
user-centered design

User-centered design?
Business
idea
Try
it out
Launch!
User-centered design | @rebeccadestello

“Merely being the victim of a
particular problem does not
automatically bestow on one
the power to see its solution.
Alan Cooper
“The Inmates Are Running the Asylum” p123

Much less funny when you think about
how much this can cost.

User-centered design !
?
Business
idea
Try
it out
Launch!
Research
problem
Ideate
Evaluate
goal
Prototype
Iterate

II. Ideate
Generate ideas
User-centered design
V. Launch
Build, Measure, Learn
I. Research
Discover goals & needs
Design → Evaluate → Iterate
III. Prototype
Produce something
tangible
IV. Evaluate
Determine ease
of use

Why have a process for
design?

A designer’s expertise lies not in the thing he or she is designing.
You do not have to be a widget expert to be a designer of a widget-manufacturing
interface. Instead, you must
be an expert in the process of design.

Why follow a design process?
• It helps us know where to begin
• It helps us keep the user first
• It prevents us from omitting important steps
• It's more reliable than intuition
• It reminds us to iterate

Good design requires iteration High fidelity
Wireframe
Ideate
Sketch
Paper Prototype

Phase I: Research
Discover the user’s goals and needs

II. Ideate
Generate ideas
I. Research
V. Launch
I. Research
III. Prototype
Produce something
tangible
IV. Evaluate
Determine ease
of use

Why start with research?
You cannot design apart from the world in which
your users live.

How do we learn what we want to know?
First, identify users and their needs
• Who is the target audience?
• Who are the stakeholders?
• What are the user and business requirements?

How do we learn what we want to know?
Then develop a research question
• How do users do it now?
• What do users want?
• What do users need?
• What else have they tried?
• Is there already another solution?

Qualitative
(insights)
landscape of
Contextual inquiry Field studies
research
methodologies
Quantitative
(validation)
Goals & Attitudes
(what people say)
Behaviors
(what people do)
Diary studies
User interviews
Participatory design
Card sorting
Usability testing
Site traffic
A/B testing
User surveys

for best results,
use triangulation
to learn about
your user
Qualitative
research
A/B test results Survey data
APPARENT
TRUTH

Qualitative
(insights)
Field studies
Quantitative
(validation)
Goals & Attitudes
(what people say)
Behaviors
(what people do)
Diary studies
User interviews
Participatory design
Card sorting
Usability testing
Site traffic
A/B testing
User surveys
Contextual inquiry
For example: Your
business goal is to…
Attract prospective
students who look at
the UW website to
register for the
master’s program.
Where would
you begin?
1
2
3
4
5
Focus groups

Phase II: Ideate
Generate lots, and lots, and lots of ideas

II. Ideate
Generate ideas
V. Launch
I. Research
III. Prototype
Produce something
tangible
IV. Evaluate
Determine ease
of use
II. Ideate

Ideate to increase the chances for success by considering a huge
volume of ideas in a systematic way. One of the worst things you can
do is go with the first idea that you get. Remember:
You can always come back to it later.
2013 | Rebecca Destello

a few
ideation methods…

Design mapping
Cardboard mockups
Sketching
Story telling w/props
Affinity diagramming
Intro to the UCD Process | R. Destello, T. Zeiler | UX Research, Nordstrom User-centered design | @rebeccadestello Direct, 2014

Phase III: Prototype
Create something tangible to test

II. Ideate
Generate ideas
III. Prototype
V. Launch
I. Research
III. Prototype
Produce something
tangible
IV. Evaluate
Determine ease
of use

first...
a note about
sketch vs. prototype

Sketch vs. Prototype
exploring ideas testing ideas

Why prototype?
• You can test ideas
• It brings the user into the design process
early on
• Prototyping brings subtleties and nuances
into the light
• Begin to wrestle with the technical
constraints

Prototyping techniques
• Body storming
• Cardboard / foam core mockups
• Paper prototypes
• Wizard of Oz
• Screenshots
• Video mock-ups
• Digital prototypes
Lo-fidelity
Hi-fidelity

fun / cheap
prototyping technique:
paper prototype

fun / unusual
body storming

fun / unusual
wizard of oz
http://youtu.be/DL9cAcQ-gKQ

Phase IV: Evaluate
Determine ease of use

I. Research
II. Ideate
Generate ideas
V. Launch
III.
PrototypeProduce
something tangible
IV. Evaluate
Determine ease
of use
Prototype
Produce something
tangible
IV. Evaluate

Why evaluate?
Evaluation helps answer..
• If a product is learnable, efficient, memorable,
error tolerant, and satisfying
• If there is a problem, “why” it might exist
• If we built it right
It also helps drive iterations :-)

Some evaluation methods
• Heuristic Evaluation
• Cognitive Walkthrough
• Usability Testing

Heuristic evaluation
Expert review of an interface against a set of guidelines or
principles. For example, Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Heuristics:

Cognitive walkthrough (streamlined)
For each action a user has to take to complete a task, the
reviewer needs to describe the user's immediate goal and
answer 2 questions:
1. Will the user know what to do at this step?
2. If the user does the right thing, will they know that they
did the right thing, and are making progress towards
their goal?

Usability testing
Usability assesses how easy user interfaces are to use.
Usability is defined by 5 quality components:
• Learnability
• Efficiency
• Memorability
• Errors
• Satisfaction

Phase V: Launch
Build, measure, and learn

II. Ideate
Generate ideas
V. Launch
V. Launch
I. Research
III. Prototype
Produce something
tangible
IV. Evaluate
Determine ease
of use

Why measure at launch?
• Product is fully developed and in actual
environment
• Assess in a quantitative way which design
performs better
• Helps answer “Did we get it right?”

Some measurement methods
• Site analytics
• Surveys
• A/B or multivariate testing
• Benchmark testing

https://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/ab-testing/
A/B testing

http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/multivariate-testing.php
Multivariate testing

If problems are in . . .
I. Research
II. Ideate
Generate ideas
User’s
performance
User’s
understanding
Usefulness /
Appropriateness
V. Launch
IV. Evaluate
Determine ease
of use
III. Prototype
Produce something
tangible
Evaluation drives iteration

In summary
Research, ideate, prototype, evaluate, launch
Intro to the UCD Process | R. Destello | UX Research, Nordstrom, 2014

Summary of the UCD process
• Research to understand the user’s problem space,
goals, and needs
• Ideate to generate ideas for solving the user’s needs,
and problem space
• Prototype to create something tangible to test
• Evaluate the prototype to assess performance
• Iterate! Iterate! Iterate!
• Launch, build, measure, learn…. repeat

Thank you!
Rebecca Destello
@rebeccadestello

Intro to user centered design

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Intro to user centered design

Similar to Intro to user centered design (20)

More from Rebecca Destello

More from Rebecca Destello (9)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Intro to user centered design