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.
#31748
The gaps in your documentation aren’t there because you haven’t consider a particular level of user; the gaps in your documentation are there because you haven’t considered how one level of user becomes another. How DO you get from Beginner to Expert?
McLean, Gordon. One Man Writes (2008). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Technical Writing
#24714
Getting to Know Your Audience Through Customer Visits 
Getting to know your audience is not an easy task. Telephone interviews and written surveys are helpful, but the most effective way to really understand customer needs is through face-to-face contact. A successful program of customer visits requires thoughtful planning and organization. You need to identify clear objectives, develop a discussion guide, select the appropriate customers to visit, conduct the interviews, and determine how to analyze and communicate the results. You’ll also want to develop an action plan to follow-up on what you learn. We visited 12 customers in 6 weeks. Here is our story. . .
Kagan, Lisa. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>User Centered Design>Audience Analysis
#23389
Give Them Printed Documentation, Too!!!
The current trend among technical communicators is a twisted form of minimalism that says the documentation should contain procedural documentation but little or no reference documentation. I believe that this trend is a disservice to our customers and tends to increase technical support costs because customers subjected to this form of documentation have little or no access to the information they need. If it’s not there, they can't find it.
Starr, Mike. TC-FORUM (2002). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design
#29557
Global Market, Global Emotion, Global Design?
In the current discussion of where design is going and what matters, there is an emphasis on the user and his or her (emotional) experience. It is a hot topic in books, blogs and the minds of industrial designers and interaction designers, worldwide. The importance of a focus on (emotional) experiences in addition to a merely technological or functional focus is being stressed by professionals with many different cultural backgrounds.
van Hout, Marco. uiGarden. Articles>User Centered Design>User Experience>Emotions
#26450
Global Site Navigation: Not Worthwhile?
Having global navigation isn't a bad thing. It's just not something that should garner a lot of resources, as it's unlikely to be important in the user experience. You're probably better off putting your resources elsewhere (such as increasing scent for the most important content on your site).
Spool, Jared M. GUUUI (2004). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#27575
Your requirements document needs to focus on the user’s goals. They should not be marketing’s list of features 'we’ve got to have' because the competition has these features. They should not be a list of things the programmers think ought to be included 'because we can add those things for very little cost.' Feature bloat does not benefit the user.
Ferlazzo, Ellen Lawson. Sprezzatura Systems (2002). Articles>User Centered Design>Specifications>Software
#28390
To me, understanding goals is the single most critical factor in the success of any design project, and fundamental to the Web Design from Scratch approach. In this section, you'll learn techniques that help you discover your own goals and gain insight into what your target audience really wants. If you're working on a project, this section will help you get a clear picture of your purpose, understand the key goals of your target users and start to visualise a high-value solution that ensures everybody wins.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Methods
#28311
Writers can increase the value of their documentation by visiting customers where the customers work and seeing what they are doing. It's easier to write targeted topics when you know what readers need. Ann Beebe, User Education manager for Visual Studio, gave me two examples of writers who went into the field and discovered how the customer's experience can be very different from the experience in the development team.
Miller, Harry. Microsoft (2006). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>User Centered Design
#28407
Everything that goes into your web site must have a purpose. Every single element and decision must help users achieve their goals and support the site's goals.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Minimalism
#31949
Good Products Don’t Make Up for Bad Service … But They Help
Jeffrey Kalmikoff is partner at skinnyCorp and chief creative officer at Threadless. In this article he relates what a trip to a sandwich shop can teach you about customer service.
Kalmikoff, Jeffrey. Vitamin (2008). Articles>User Experience>User Centered Design
#21271
Got Usability? Talking with Jakob Nielsen
Jakob Nielsen has brought usability to the attention of the general public, but within the user experience community he's been criticized by those who say he emphasizes a view that excludes other dimensions of user experience. So is he the defender of ease-of-use or the enemy of creativity?
Thornton, Chad. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design
#27942
Growing a Business Website: Fix the Basics First
Clear content, simple navigation, and answers to customer questions have the biggest impact on business value. Advanced technology matters much less.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2006). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
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Guidelines for Web Data Collection: Understanding and Interacting with Your Users 
The global growth of the World Wide Web challenges technical communicators to reconsider the methods we use to create designs that meet the goals and needs of our users. This article focuses on taking advantage of the Web's potential for interactivity between designers and users. It offers strategies for getting data from users of Web sites and using it for two main purposes: (1) analyzing audience and patterns of use to support continuous redesign, and (2) building a relationship or sense of community on a Web site.
Ramey, Judith A. Technical Communication Online (2000). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Log Analysis
#23283
When people buy things, they engage in a decision-making process. Research shows that one of the major problems with commerce sites is that they fail in supporting the customers in this process. By understanding their needs and concerns as they progress through the decision-making cycle, we can build better and more successful commerce sites.
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Handlings Orienteret Webdesign
Når et website etableres vil det som oftest være med virksomheden eller organisationen som udgangspunkt. Det betyder at det er disse interesser der er afsæt for løsningen. At tage udgangspunkt i ens egne faktiske situation er helt indlysende, og acceptabelt da denne situation er afsættet for hvorledes websitet skal impleenteres. Skulle man tage udgangspunkt i brugeren ville kravene ikke nødvendigvis være i overensstemmelse med de visioner virksomheden har. Det er vigtigt at have øje for hvorledes virksomheden arbejder med websitets mål i forhold til virksomhedens mål og visioner. Dette betyder at man bliver nødt til at gøre et grundigt forarbejde inden man påbegynder et webprojekt.
Quark, The (2002). (Danish) Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#27107
Helping Your Visitors: A State of Mind
Remember your site visitors won't find your website as easy to use as you do. Change your state of mind and you'll improve the user experience for all visitors.
Usborne, Nick. Webcredible (2006). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#25523
Helping Your Visitors: a State of Mind
Even the simplest website is harder to figure out than a catalog or magazine. We all know how to 'use' a catalog: start at the front cover and keep turning the pages. But with every new site we visit, we have to 'learn' how it works, how its 'pages' turn, how to find what we’re looking for. Text that takes visitors' needs into account can help guide them through the maze.
Usborne, Nick. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
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The High Price of Not Listening
Ever visited the website of a company with a glaring error either on the site or in their product, only to discover that they have successfully sealed themselves off from the world, so you can't report it? Sure you have, and it's not only causing you frustration, it's costing that company real money.
Tognazzini, Bruce. Nielsen Norman Group (2004). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>User Experience
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High-Level Design for Documentation: A User-Centered Approach
This paper discusses how information designers, especially those who are members of multidisciplinary teams following a user-centered design (UCD) approach to designing a product, can define a highlevel design for a product’s information. It will discuss what data designers need before they can make design decisions and what activities they can perform to define a high-level design. A partial list of new skills that technical communicators need for UCD is also included.
Szydlik, Frederick P. STC Proceedings (1996). Design>Documentation>User Centered Design
#27476
Research indicates that most users never find the majority of the functionality in any given application. Learning tends to reach a plateau early on, and is rarely expanded upon. And what that means is that most customers consistently undervalue the software products they purchase and use.
Farrell, Tom. Frontend Infocentre (2006). Design>Web Design>Usability>User Centered Design
#28330
The homepage is different from all other Web site pages. A well-constructed homepage will project a good first impression to all who visit the site. It is important to ensure that the homepage has all of the features expected of a homepage and looks like a homepage to users. A homepage should clearly communicate the site's purpose, and show all major options available on the Web site. Generally, the majority of the homepage should be visible 'above the fold,' and should contain a limited amount of prose text. Designers should provide easy access to the homepage from every page in the site.
Usability.gov (2006). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#27387
Discusses how Anthem attained the training, standards, and resources they needed to create a sustained usability effort.
Weinschenk, Susan and Kyle Tolar. Human Factors International (2006). Presentations>Usability>User Centered Design
#29925
How Do Users Really Feel About Your Design?
The user experience field has been trying to move beyond mere usability and utility for years. So far, no one seems to have developed easy-to-implement, non-retrospective, valid, and reliable measures for gauging users' emotional reactions to a system, application, or Web site. In this column, I'll introduce you to a promising method that just might solve this problem.
Sherman, Paul J. UXmatters (2007). Design>User Experience>User Centered Design>Emotions
#19428
How Good are Designers at Predicting User Performance?
Having designers guess the best way of achieving optimal user performance is very difficult. Their design decisions can be improved by ensuring that designers are familiar with the research literature, and by effectively using performance-based usability testing.
Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2001). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>Usability
#26764
How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Relinquish Control
How could there be a successful business model in actively sending people away from your site? Seven years and a $75 billion market capitalization later, that question has obviously been answered.
Merholz, Peter. Adaptive Path (2005). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design
