The fundamentals of User-Centered Design (UCD) in this concise overview. Discover the methodology that prioritizes user needs and preferences throughout the entire design and development process. Learn key principles, practical applications, and the impact of UCD on creating effective, usable, and accessible products. Ideal for designers, developers, and product managers aiming to enhance user experience. All content within this presentation is the property of Royal Holloway, University of London. Unauthorized use, duplication, or distribution of the materials contained herein is strictly prohibited.

1. Introduction to
User Centred
Design
Szonya Durant, Nuno Barreiro, Carlos Matos
Lecture 1
PC3001, PC4001, PC5001, CS2847

2. Introduction to
User Centred
Design
Szonya Durant, Nuno Barreiro, Carlos Matos

3. Introduction to
User Centred
Design
Szonya Durant, Nuno Barreiro, Carlos Matos

4. A multidisciplinary subject
The ‘user’ – Psychology
Design – Computer Science and Media Arts
Need to design ‘with the mind in mind’
Technology works in certain ways – so do users
What is displayed does not necessarilydictate
what is perceived
4

5. Aims
 Understand what user centred design is, its
principles and challenges
 Build prototypes using different media and
technologies - keeping the user in mind
 Evaluate the usability and suitability of user
interfaces
 Understand testing (with users) as means of
evaluating and improving usability
5

6. The user: Psychological human
factors
 “Above the neck factors”
 Sometimes referred to as
‘cognitive ergonomics’ or
‘cognitive engineering’
Applications of principles
of behaviour and cognition
beyond the laboratory in
industry, schools, medicine
and sports.
6

7. To err is human
Accident reports
• aircrash, industrial accident, hospital mistake
• enquiry blames ‘human error’
but
• concrete lintel breaks due to weight
• blame ‘lintel error’?
It's a design error
(we know how concrete behaves under
stress)
Human ‘error’ is normal
• we know how users behave under stress
• we should design for it
7

8. The user: human information processing
Wickens et al.
Pp. 4
Sensory
processing
Perception
Working
memory
Response
selection
Response
execution
System
Environment
(Feedback)
Long-term
memory
Attention resources
Selection
8

9. The user:
modulatory
factors
Individual differences - age, background,
different abilities, different attitudes
Stress/fatigue
Organizational/societalfactors
Expertise
9

10. Know your
users
Who are they?
Talk to them
Watch them
Measure them
Use your imagination to establish example
users
Read the literature...
10

11. Persona Description of an ‘example’ user
not necessarilya real person
Use as surrogateuser
“What would Betty think?”
Details matter
makes her ‘real’
Do your research: “average” behaviour can be useful,
But stereotypes can also be dangerous!
11

12. What is
design?
"A design is a plan or specification for the
construction of an object or system or for
the implementation of an activity or
process, or the result of that plan or
specification in the form of a prototype,
product or process."
Wikipedia
12

13. What is
interaction?
• Communication between a user and a
system
• Two-way communication
• Several stages
13

14. Interaction
design
Achieving goals within constraints
• Goals (purpose)
who is it for, why do they want it
• Constraints
materials,platforms, cost, safety
• Trade-offs
functionality/simplicity, quality/cost
14

15. • Ergonomic
minimum button size
• Physical
high-voltage switches are big
• Legal and safety
high cooker controls
• Context and environment
easy to clean
• Aesthetic
must look good
• Economic
cost of production is always a concern
Constraints
15

16. Understand
your materials
In the case of designing
for working with computers
• Understand computers
limitations,capacities,tools, platforms
• Understand people
psychology, sociology, human error
• Understand their interaction
how, when, why, etc.
16

17. Paradigm
shifts
Batch processing
Timesharing
Networking
Graphical display
Microprocessor
WWW
Ubiquitous computing
(Internet of Things)
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1980s
1990s
New paradigms
bring
new kinds of interaction
17

18. Traditional
interaction
styles
Commandline interface (CLI)
Menus
WIMP
Point and click
Suitable for repetitive tasks
Better for expert users than novices
Set of optionsdisplayed on the screen
Less recall, but names should be meaningful
Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointers
Default style for most desktops and laptops
Multimedia, Web browsers, hypertext
Click on icons, text links, location on map
18

19. Other
interaction
styles
Familiar to user
Speech recognition or typed
Suited for novices but restricted functionality
Often used in information systems
Primarily for data entry or data retrieval
Require validation/correction facilities
VR (virtual reality)
3D workspaces
Natural language
Question/answerinterfaces
Form-fills
Three-dimensional interfaces
19

20. Interaction
styles and
controllers
• Menus, forms, command line and
direct manipulation
• Touchscreens
• Control by speech
• Game console controllers
• Controlling with gestures
• Locomotion in space
20

21. Donald Norman’s model
Forming
the goal
Forming
the intention
Specifying
the action
Executing
the action
Observer
Evaluating
the outcome
Interpreting
the state
of the world
Perceiving
the state
of the world
System
EXECUTION
EVALUATION
1. What do I want
to accomplish?
2. What are the alternative
actionsequences?
3. What action
can I do now?
4. How do I do it?
5. What happened?
6. What does
this mean?
7. Have I accomplished
my goal?
FEEDFORWARD
FEEDBACK
21

22. Design process
What is
wanted
Analysis
Design
Implement
and deploy
Evaluation
heuristics
Prototype
Interviews;
Ethnography;
Surveys
Architectures;
Documentation;
Help
Scenarios;
Task analysis
Guidelines;
Principles
Dialogue
notations
Precise
specification
Build
22

23. Requirements
Trade-offs
Safety (front panel of a cooker is safer for adults,
the rear panel is safer for children)
Ergonomics vs physical
(multifunction controls or reduced functionality)
Fluidity (physical aspects vs logical effect)
Is the logical state revealed in the physical state?
(on/off buttons)
Do inverse actions inverse effects?
(arrow buttons, twist controls)
23

24. Scenarios
Stories for design
what will users want to do?
Step-by-step walkthrough
what can they see (sketches,screen shots)
what do they do (keyboard, mouse etc.)
what are they thinking?
Use and reuse throughout design
24

25. Use scenarios
to… Communicate with others
designers,clients, users
Validate other models
‘play’ it against other models
Express dynamics
screenshots– appearance
scenario – behaviour
25

26. Scenarios are
linear
A scenariois one linear path
through the system
• Pros
life and time are linear
easy to understand(storiesand narrative are
natural)
concrete (errorsare less likely)
• Cons
no choice,no branches,no special conditions
missthe unintended
• So…
use several scenarios
use several methods
compilescenariosinto user journeys
26

27. A user should
always know
• Where they are
• What they can do
• Where they are going
or what will happen next
• Where they have been
or what they’ve done
27

28. Teaching on
this course
• Interdisciplinary teaching team
• Lectures provide overall information
structure
• Workshopsalso contain essential
information as well as a structuredway of
working on the project (hands-on way of
learning)
• Group project work in interdisciplinary
teams (transferable skills)
• Move beyond screen-based design to
cutting edge consideration on virtual
environments
28

29. Project work
and
assessment
• Individual lab quizzes – 10%
5 quizzes, 4 best grades
• Group project interim submission - 20%
task analysis and storyboard
• Individual peer evaluation - 10%
prototypeevaluation
• Group project final submission - 20%
low-fi prototype
• Individual final report - 40%
reflection on the project work
29