#26544
Uncovering Users In Your Own Organization
Buying new clothes and looking at current fashions is usually much more interesting and exciting than digging through one's closet or laundry hamper. However, there is a lot one can learn by stopping and taking a minute to examine one's own clothes.
Rampoldi-Hnilo, Lynn. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods
#25605
Uncovering Users In Your Own Organization
Buying new clothes and looking at current fashions is usually much more interesting and exciting than digging through one’s closet or laundry hamper. However, there is a lot one can learn by stopping and taking a minute to examine one's own clothes.
Rampoldi-Hnilo, Lynn. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods
#23039
Understanding Organizational Stakeholders for Design Success
User-centered design professionals pay special emphasis to one type of stakeholder—the users of the system—arguing that user experience needs to be carefully crafted to satisfy user needs. While understanding user needs and goals is certainly necessary, it is often not sufficient for producing a successful design.
Boutelle, Jonathan. Boxes and Arrows (2004). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods
#29344
Understanding Users' Commitment to Specific Technologies 
Users often become committed to certain versions and features of technology, making them leery when upgrades roll around. You can make the transition easier with these communication techniques.
Kalvar, Shannon T. TechRepublic (2003). Articles>Technology>Communication>User Centered Design
#24282
Understanding Users' Work: Doing Task Analysis Before Design 
Are you interested in a gaining a better understanding of tasks and task analysis? Are you looking for practical hints on doing workflow analysis, job analysis, or procedural analysis? Are you used to writing about tasks based on product features, when you know the product would be better if the team had done task analysis first? If so, come participate in this demonstration/workshop in which we'll explore how to understand users' work by doing task analysis before designing the product.
Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods
#24918
Usability and User Experience Design: The Next Decade
Predicts that usability practitioners will need new skills to cope with changes in this field.
Wilson, Chauncey E. Intercom (2005). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design
#23861
Usability in Practice: Company Profile of Hylotek
Which companies are actually practicing usability, and what does usability mean to them? Who's investing time and money into usability, and what kind of return are they receiving on their investment in the real world?
Giangrossi, Diane. Usability Interface (2004). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design>Case Studies
#22121
"Use Cases" and "User Scenarios" Explained
This file contains the responses I received to a message I sent on January 21, 2000 to the TECHWR-L and WINHLP-L discussion lists. It was posted on the Techwhirl website for awhile but was removed during a reorganisation of the site. Other people's comments are included with their permission.
Hollis Weber, Jean. Technical Editors Eyrie (2000). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods
#26258
The User Advocate: Interactive Prototyping, Part 1: Easy PDF Prototyping
I've often observed that once wireframing begins, it's off to the races! In the rush to launch, we sometimes forget end-users. Is there a way to ensure that they get a voice during this always-hectic phase?
Rogers, David J. GotoMedia (2005). Articles>User Centered Design>Usability>Testing
#28665
User Assistance in the Role of Domain Expert
This article explores the role of user assistance in providing domain-centric online Help--rather than Help that simply explains obvious user interactions with well-designed user interfaces--and provides a pattern for and examples of expert guidance.
Hughes, Michael A. UXmatters (2007). Articles>User Centered Design>Help>Online
#25610
The central premise of user-centred design is that the best-designed products and services result from understanding the needs of the people who will use them. User-centred designers engage actively with end-users to gather insights that drive design from the earliest stages of product and service development, right through the design process.
Black, Alison. Design Council (2005). Articles>User Centered Design
#25720
User Expectations in a World of Smart Devices
I'm increasingly convinced that, as networks of smart objects permeate our environment, people's attitudes toward technology will become more animist. In other words, we’ll start to anthropomorphize our stuff.
Kuniavsky, Mike. Adaptive Path (2003). Articles>User Centered Design>Ubiquitous Computing
#19475
User Experience Design for Working Web Sites and Applications
As Technical Communicators, we’re often added as members of software and web site development teams merely as an afterthought. Executives, managers, programmers, and other team members frequently view the results of our work—manuals, online help systems, tutorials, and other documents—as 'nice-to-have' additions to products. This pervasive attitude is certainly not healthy for the profession of technical communication... but it’s not good for the applications our organizations and clients produce either. When Technical Communicators working in an e-business unit as user advocates are given more responsibility and more authority over the 'user experience' of a web-based application, for instance, they affect the bottom-line. They increase hits, product buzz, and completed transactions. By moving beyond manuals, beyond help, and into the new role of User Experience Designer, we increase the value we add to services and products and increase our professional status within organizations.
Sisler, Paul and Catherine M. Titta. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#28532
User Experience in a Software Development Team
User Experience (UX) design is traditionally seen as the domain of user interface (UI) design, but within a software development team it should mean so much more! UX should permeate through the whole development team. It should influence the way middle tier developers' craft their components and the way database administrators create their tables, stored procedures and views.
Goddard, Matthew. uiGarden (2007). Articles>User Centered Design>User Experience
#29474
User Persona: Its Application and the Art of Stereotyping
I feel that creation of user persona is nothing but realistic stereotyping or a simplified outline of the user. The word 'realistic' is more important as realism can be achieved only through user study. (I am not referring to the fictional personas applicable in futuristic technologies). Humorists, cartoonists and filmmakers are gifted with the art of stereotyping. But they tend to exaggerate a lot. Therefore the personalities they render appear like caricatures. We must avoid caricatured user personas. While stereotyping, you generalize and oversimplify. And when you do that you pick or eliminate some details. That makes all the difference.
Katre, Dinesh S. Journal of HCI Vistas (2007). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas
#23589
User Preference Tests: Show and Tell for Information Design
This article relates the author's experiences with user preference tests. User preference tests help a technical communicator make design decisions. To illustrate this point, the author describes a real-world scenario, the prototyping efforts involved in preparing for a user preference test, and three types of user preference tests.
Corbin Nichols, Michelle. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Information Design>User Centered Design
#30827
User Skills Improving, But Only Slightly
Users now do basic operations with confidence and perform with skill on sites they use often. But when users try new sites, well-known usability problems still cause failures.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design
#18452
A User-Centered Approach to Selling Information Architecture
One of the most popular topics for discussion among those practicing Information Architecture is “selling IA.” There is a constant struggle to show the value and benefits of including information architecture techniques on a project. The most common approach to selling IA involves introducing the basic concepts, along with explanations and examples of what deliverables are produced, and some discussion of the benefits. At that point, usually the client will comment, or ask about how these procedures can fit in to a specific project. This is antithetical to the mantra of user-centered design, which says that the needs of the user should be understood before the design begins. How can one design a sales approach before understanding the needs of the client? The proper approach should be to figure out what the goals and needs of the client are before ever starting to try and sell Information Architecture as a possible solution.
Lash, Jeff. Digital Web Magazine. Articles>Information Design>User Centered Design
#24735
User-Centered Deliverables: Communicating the Right Things to the Right People
As usability professionals working on the Web, it is our responsibility to make sure our clients' sites communicate effectively to their intended audience. We make recommendations about what information the audience needs, how they expect it to be presented and how they’ll need to work with it once they’ve got it. But how often do we consider our own audience, the people we need to make our recommendations happen? Does one set of documentation meet the needs of all members of an interdisciplinary team? Probably not.
Beecher, Frederick. Usability Professionals Association (2004). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design
#30628
The design of everyday objects is not always intuitive and at times it leaves the user frustrated and unable to complete a simple task. How many of us have bought a VCR that we have struggled to used and missed recording our favorite programs because we misunderstood the instructions or had to put up with the clock blinking 12:00 because we didn't know how to stop it? Do we have to put up with designs like these? Isn't it possible to design systems that are more usable? 'User-centered design' (UCD) is a broad term to describe design processes in which end-users influence how a design takes shape. It is both a broad philosophy and variety of methods. There is a spectrum of ways in which users are involved in UCD but the important concept is that users are involved one way or another. For example, some types of UCD consult users about their needs and involve them at specific times during the design process; typically during requirements gathering and usability testing. At the opposite end of the spectrum there are UCD methods in which users have a deep impact on the design by being involved as partners with designers throughout the design process.
Abras, Chadia, Diane Maloney-Krichmar and Jenny Preece. University of Maryland (2004). Articles>User Centered Design
#22187
Review: User-Centered Organizations: Are We Making Progress, Yet?
In Designing Customer-Centered Organizations, John Zapolski and Jared Braiterman suggest a strategy for applying user-centered design principles to business strategy.
#26090
User-Centred Design: Tried and Tested Flavour of the Month
User centred design is an approach that helps all members of a development team balance the needs of customers with the commercial objectives of the product. Properly executed, it guarantees commercial success for a product because customers are involved at every phase of the development. It also ensures business objectives are met and stops products from being over-engineered.
#20727
User-Driven Documentation: From Usability Testing to User Guide
Rockwell Software is a $90-million company specializing in plant automation software. Offices in West Allis, Wisconsin, and Mayfield Village, Ohio allow technical communicators to work closely with development teams to design, test, and release usable, consistent software and information products. While Rockwell Software’s information development process is a multi-faceted endeavor, this paper focuses on the following three steps we implement to create our information products: interviewing customers to establish information guidelines, conducting usability tests, and writing Getting Results guides.
Butler, Scott A., Jennifer L. Giordano and Myron M. Shawala III. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Usability
#27940
Users Interleave Sites and Genres
When working on business problems, users flitter among sites, alternating visits to different service genres. No single website defines the user experience on its own.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#30007
User role models are compared in detail with the popular user modeling technique of personas. User roles offer a more compact, more focused means of capturing and exploring those aspects of users most relevant to interaction design. The advantages and limitations of the approaches are considered and a combined strategy is described.
Constantine, Larry L. Constantine and Lockwood (2006). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas
