User-centered design is a philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of the end user of an interface or document are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process. It is often seen as an offshoot of the usability movement, and a progenitor of the experience design and interaction design movements.
#24422
Figuring Out What Your Customers Really Need 
Effective technical manuals and training meet the needs of the customer. No one will argue with that statement. But the trick is to identify the needs of the customer. This paper describes one method to focus product information development on the customer: the needs analysis survey. This methodology that is common in course development and training identifies the tasks customers perform. It also allows course developers and technical communicators to collaborate on an area that they both understand.
Brockett, Susan H. and Susan Katz. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design
#31588
Finding a Cure for Survey Fatigue
A downward trend in survey response rates is often blamed on the fact that people simply become tired of taking surveys. Butthere are ways to avoid the malaise setting in, says Angela Sinickas, a key one being making sure thatpeople feel their opinions are actually being listened to. Here she shares three common causes of survey fatigue and how to deal with them.
Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (2007). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Surveys
#18936
If you’re using the eenie meenie method to select users for your research, perhaps it’s time you tried something a little more scientific. There is no such thing as sound user research without an airtight user-selection process behind it. No matter how good the observation and analysis, it’s all for naught if you’ve studied the wrong people. Too much “user research” is conducted, analyzed, and applied without anyone ever having spoken to users. Researchers then offer guidelines based on the needs and preferences of people who would never use the product in question. Relevant user research results depend on two factors: First, obviously, you’ll need to find people who are likely to use the product. Second, you’ll need to interview enough of them so that trends emerge from their collective behavior. These trends will indicate your primary design targets.
Merholz, Peter. Adaptive Path (2003). Articles>User Centered Design>Usability
#20328
First Contact: Talking to Your Documentation Users
You've never met them before. To you, they may represent the unknown and the strange. They view things differently, and their ways may seem almost alien. Yet you are supposed to serve their needs. They are your customers. Isn't it time you made first contact? In this paper, we share lessons learned and invite you to being your own voyage of discovery.
Macdonald, Kyla and Judith Rachel. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design
#29810
Five-Second Tests: Measuring Your Site's Content Pages
On your site, the content page is the user's most frequent final destination. This page contains the information the user came to the site to find. Sites often have hundreds, if not thousands (and in some cases, millions) of these critical pages. How can design teams be confident their content pages are understandable to users? How does a team ensure they've designed content pages that communicate the essential information effectively?
Perfetti, Christine. User Interface Engineering (2005). Articles>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design
#23038
Focus on the Student: How to Use Learning Objectives to Improve Learning
As information architects we all know how important it is to keep the user in mind. The same is true in teaching IA: we must keep the learner in mind. Learning objectives are one tool to help keep your classes focused on the student. They will also help you develop the syllabus, lesson plans, and assessment methods.
Cown, Wendy. Boxes and Arrows (2004). Articles>Information Design>Instructional Design>User Centered Design
#21152
What do you really want your users to do once you get them to your site? What information do you want to get to them? How do you want to them to use your site? What responses do you want from your users?
Rhodes, John S. WebWord (1999). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#23242
Forget the "What" - Focus on the "How"
Emphasis the benefits, not the features of your services, and watch your website's conversion rate increase!
Thackston, Karon. Webcredible (2004). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#20785
Formal Definition of User-Centered Design
UCD is a highly structured, comprehensive product development methodology driven by: (1) clearly specified, task-oriented business objectives, and (2) recognition of user needs, limitations and preferences. Information collected using UCD analysis isscientifically applied in the design, testing, and implementation of products and services. When rigorously applied, a UCD approach meets both user needs and the business objectives of the sponsoring organization.
#21169
Forms and JavaScript Living Together in Harmony
Most developers don't surf the web with JavaScript turned off on purpose. Fortunately, there are rarely instances where this lack of respect for the non-JavaScript users is necessary.
Howden, Jeff. evolt (2003). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>DHTML
#13655
forUse: the Newsletter of Usage-Centered Design
forUse is an electronic newsletter published by e-mail approximately 9 times a year. forUse covers new developments in usage-centered design. Regularly features include: tips and techniques on design, modeling, and management, questions and answers on technical issues in usage-centered design, plus news and upcoming events. Subscribers get early notice of new papers and publications, and the newsletter features complement material on the Web site.
Foruse.com. Journals>Usability>User Centered Design>Newsletters
#29494
Foundations of Interaction Design
Interaction Design is distinct from the other design disciplines. It's not Information Architecture, Industrial Design or even User Experience Design. It also isn't user interface design. Interaction design is not about form or even structure, but is more ephemeral--about why and when rather than about what and how.
Malouf, David Heller. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Design>User Centered Design>Interaction Design
#31912
Bad content, bad links, bad navigation, bad category pages... which is worst for business? In these examples, bad content takes the prize for costing the company the most money.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2008). Design>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design
#26863
Four Modes of Seeking Information and How to Design for Them
Information-seeking behavior varies from situation to situation. Donna Mauer explores different ways in which users look for information and offers tactics for accommodating them.
Maurer, Donna. Boxes and Arrows (2006). Articles>User Centered Design>Information Design
#21155
Everyone loves free stuff. Capitalize on this and you can make your site more user-centered. It can also drive up sales, profits, and user satisfaction.
Rhodes, John S. WebWord (1999). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#23576
This presentation addresses designers and documenters who develop technologies for human use. The content is based on an intensive 42-hour training package, developed by Communications and Training Inc. Course content and duration can be modified to meet individual requirements. One day interactive workshops are also available.
Hofer, Klaus C. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design
#18724
From Formalism to Social Significance in Communication Design
At the heart of design is the goal of communication, and instilling a belief in the audience about the past, present, or future. Historically, graphic and advertising design, fields within communication design, have oriented around clients and deliverables, and have maintained a focus on translating written or spoken messages into visual communication. Designers of visual communications—graphic design and the related areas of advertising: brand and identities, Web sites, and posters and photomontages—have largely relied on the designer’s intuition and training to create appropriate visual messages.
Forlizzi, Jodi and Cherie Lebbon. Design Issues (2002). Design>User Centered Design>Audience Analysis
#28683
How ironic that we think we can get more exact results from our computers by emulating human interaction, but when we want exact results from human interaction, we unintentionally emulate computers. Engineering, air traffic control, legal contracts--in all endeavors where precise communication is critical--our success has depended on washing out human emotion and natural language in favor of formal procedures and protocols, complete with a detailed domain-specific language.
Agro, Leandro. UXmatters (2006). Articles>User Centered Design>User Interface>Emotions
#20330
From Purchase to Productivity: Bridging the Documentation Gap
This presentation will describe an area of documentation that is often overlooked--that which covers the process between the customer purchasing a computer system or upgraded software and the customer becoming productive using that system or software. This information includes all that needs to be planned and accomplished to get new software up, running, and integrated with existing software. Unisys Corporation fills this gap with what we call 'Release Documentation.' This presentation describes the who, what, where, when, and how of that process.
Alexander, Bruce, Avis French and Elaine Randolph. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design
#21307
At this point in experience design's evolution, satisfaction ought to be the norm, and delight ought to be the goal. As design professionals, how do we create opportunities for customer delight?
Hanna, Parrish. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>User Experience
#30018
From Usage Scenarios to User Interface Elements in a Few Steps
In practice, designers often select user interface elements like widgets intuitively. So, important design decisions may never become conscious or explicit, and therefore also not traceable. In order to improve this situation, we propose a systematic process for selecting user interface elements (in the form of widgets) in a few explicitly defined steps, starting from usage scenarios. This process provides a seamless way of going from scenarios through (attached) subtask definitions and various task classifications and (de)compositions to widget classes. In this way, it makes an important part of user interface design more systematic and conscious. For an initial evaluation of the usefulness of this approach, we conducted a small experiment that compares the widgets of an industrial GUI that was developed as usual by experienced practitioners, with the outcome of an independent execution of the proposed process. Since the results of this experiment are encouraging, we suggest to investigate this approach further in real-world practice.
Kaindl, Hermann and Rudolf Jezek. Constantine and Lockwood (2002). Design>User Interface>User Centered Design
#25399
This position paper looks at two examples where the study of fun is at very least systematic, and quite possibly scientific. In the first, Virtual Crackers, a systematic process of 'deconstructing experience'; identifies the individual aspects of an experience (pulling crackers), which are then used to reconstruct a new experience in a new medium (the web).
Dix, Alan. uiGarden (2004). Articles>User Centered Design>Human Computer Interaction
#28296
The Future Belongs to the Trusted Few
Find out how to avoid sneaky marketing practices that users can see through. Instead, provide honest and useful content and watch the number of repeat site visitors soar.
Usborne, Nick. Webcredible (2006). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Marketing
#14346
Gathering Input for the Best Possible Prototype
Prototyping has long been a part of the sofiware development process, but is still an underutilized aspect of documentation design, particularly for online design. Developing a detailed approach to prototyping lets writers design and confirm document usability early in the development cycle. Implementing detailed prototyping in an iterative design cycle ultimately leads to the best possible document for the audience.
Mobley, Karen L. STC Proceedings (1997). Presentations>User Centered Design>Usability
#23977
Getting from Research to Personas: Harnessing the Power of Data
The usefulness of personas in defining and designing interactive products has become more widely accepted in the last few years, but a lack of published information has, unfortunately, left room for a lot of misconceptions about how personas are created, and about what information actually comprises a persona. Although space does not permit a full treatment of persona creation in this article, I hope to highlight a few essential points.
Goodwin, Kim. Cooper Interaction Design (2002). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design>Personas
