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.
#14233
Review: Nardi and O'Day's Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart 
Information. The word has become ubiquitous with the computer and the so-called revolution that has occurred as a result of this electronic gizmo so many of us use on a daily basis. We have linked the word with many other terms to describe how information functions in this new electronically-driven world: information technology, information management, information superhighway. Nardi and O’Day (1999), however, have hitched information to another term—--ecology--—that provides us with another way to think through what it means to work, learn, and play with and through the computer-mediated medium. As with any descriptor that has metaphoric possibilities, inventive minds can conjure a seemingly infinite number of ways to probe the expanded meanings that a metaphor can provide.
Johnson, Robert R. Journal of Computer Documentation (2000). Articles>Reviews>User Centered Design>Tropes
#27143
Web sites and Web applications require users to select from navigational options to access subsequent content pages. An important question relates to where the first navigational choices should be located on the page. Is the navigation better placed at the top of the page, on the left or right panels? If three clicks (i.e., three navigational level selections) are required to get to the desired content, should they be grouped together at the top, left, right, or split between different locations (e.g., select from the top, with the next selection[s] from the left, top or right)?
Bailey, Robert. Usability.gov (2006). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design
#14224
The Need for a Design Lexicon: Examining Minimalist, Performance-Centered, and User-Centered Design
Explores and compares three key design strategies that underlie the development of EPSSs: minimalism, performance-centered design, and user-centered design. Closes with observations on how the three strategies are converging
Mackenzie, Colleen. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>User Centered Design>TC
#28686
New Life for Product Documentation
Here are some 'truths' we've all heard: 'Documentation is just a band-aid for poor design.' 'Real users don't read manuals.' 'Super users never read anything.' 'Help doesn't.' But are they really true? I've seen some signs of life in the use of documentation for digital products recently.
Quesenbery, Whitney. UXmatters (2006). Articles>Documentation>User Interface>User Centered Design
#23847
The New R and D: Relevant and Desirable
Somewhere in the process of evangelizing user-centered design, user experience professionals seem to have forgotten the value of vision-driven design, which can be equally important in making sites and software relevant and desirable. We need to integrate both approaches.
Olsen, George. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#29998
New Technical Writer: Use the Persona to Create the Most Useful Section of Your User Document
A good User Document includes sections on how to set up, use, and care for the product. However, to create a great User Document, the technical writer should use the Persona, generated in the analysis of the User/Reader, to create the topics for the most useful section of the User Document. This article describes this procedure.
Millman, Barry. Article Alley (2007). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design>Personas
#29510
The Next Frontier for User-Centered Design: Making User Representations More Usable 
Personas are detailed descriptions of imaginary people constructed out of well-understood, highly specified data about real people. We believe that when you use data to create personas, and use personas in a thoughtful way during the product development process, you will: increase your product's usability, utility, and general appeal; streamline your team's processes and improve your colleagues' abilities to work together; enable your company to make business decisions that help both your company and your customers; improve your company's bottom line.
Pruitt, John and Tamara Adlin. Elsevier (2006). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas
#28413
One of the most fundamental factors in designing for screen-based media is: No-one likes looking at a computer screen.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Human Computer Interaction>User Centered Design
#27654
Non-Fatal Errors: Creating Usable, Effective Error Messages
It's often easy to identify what kinds of error messages don't help users, but it can be tricky to avoid them, and even more of a challenge to create the opposite: error messages that give users a clear indication of the problem, offer information to help them fix it, and provide tips on how to avoid the same situation in the future. This paper details the steps involved in creating understandable, helpful error messages, and suggests ways of communicating the value of good error messages to managers and executives.
Wilska, Emily. WritersUA (2004). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Online
#18943
Nondirected Interviews: How to Get More Out of Your Research Questions
As user experience designers, a key component to nearly all the techniques we use in our practice is the one-on-one interview. It's the basis of requirements gathering, usability testing, and task analysis. In order to remove our personal biases, expectations and opinions from the questions asked, I practice a kind of questioning technique called the nondirected interview. The questions asked are at the heart of any interview. Following are a loose set of guidelines to help you frame questions in a way that elicits honest and accurate responses.
Kuniavsky, Mike. Adaptive Path (2002). Articles>User Centered Design>Interviewing>Usability
#25562
The O'Reilly Radar blog will track what we're tracking, and turn the blips into conversations.
Dornfest, Rael. O'Reilly and Associates (2005). Articles>Content Management>User Centered Design>Blogging
#31869
Of Mice and iPods, or The Death of the Designer
Computing technologies are becoming so familiar it can feel as if they have always been here. It is strange to think that the mouse, for instance, was invented by Doug Englebart in the seventies. He must encounter a degree of incredulity when he mentions this to people. “You invented the mouse? Really? How nice. Did you also invent the pen?”
Blythe, Mark. uiGarden (2008). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Centered Design>Usability
#23430
Nobody reads user manuals for pleasure. And yet we all make our living from them, and hope that what we produce is at least useful, if not actually enjoyable
Bardez, Jean-Paul. TC-FORUM (2000). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design
#25948
On-Screen Real Estate (Location, Location, Location!)
On a website, certain areas carry more value than the rest of the site, just by virtue of their location. To have an effective site, it's crucial to know where these areas are and what belongs in them.
Bennaco (2004). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#21435
Online-Dokumentation aus Anwendersicht
Benutzerinstruktion muß sein. In Form von Online-Documentation ist sie unmittelbarer Teil des Programms.
von Obert, Alexander. Techwriter.de (1998). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Help
#22868
OOBE Project: A Case Study in User-Friendly Hardware
Many people can't even program their VCR, let alone set up a new PC. As part of an industry-wide response to this problem, Epson America came up with the Users Digest. We hoped it would grab users' attention and hold it long enough to get them up and running without calling tech support. This paper relates the history of the User k Digest andprovides a guided tour of this innovative document.
Bergen, Karen A. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>User Centered Design>Usability
#23965
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum, published in 1998, introduced the use of personas as a practical interaction design tool. Based on the single-chapter discussion in that book, personas rapidly gained popularity in the software industry due to their unusual power and effectiveness. Had personas been developed in the laboratory, the full story of how they came to be would have been published long ago, but since their use developed over many years in both my practice as a software inventor and architectural consultant and the consulting work of Cooper designers, that is not the case. Since Inmates was published, many people have asked for the history of Cooper personas, and here it is.
Cooper, Alan. Cooper Interaction Design. Articles>Usability>User Centered Design>Personas
#27279
Overview of the IMSA Project, A Patient-Oriented Information System
This paper proposes an overview of the IMSA application, a patient-oriented medical information system. IMSA stands for Interactive Multimedia System for Auto-medication and aims to provide a health-care Internet tool for the end-user. This system proposes an environment that integrates on-line health information, medical and pharmaceutical databases and a knowledge-based system for medical diagnosis. The implementation process focuses on cognitive science, knowledge representation and human-computer interaction.
Curé, Oliver. Data Science Journal (2002). Articles>Scientific Communication>User Centered Design
#30031
Panic! How it Works and What To Do About It
When we create technologies that are extremely complex and do not provide comprehensive feedback for each and every possible error, such as a seat belt left unbuckled, people have a tendency to drive their aircraft into garden parties. When we create technologies where similar actions produce dissimilar results, such as placing a brake and accelerator pedal side-by-side, to be actuated in the identical manner by the identical limb, people will periodically die.
Tognazzini, Bruce. Nielsen Norman Group (2004). Design>User Interface>User Centered Design>Emotions
#30865
Path Analysis: A Good Use of Time?
Is doing Path Analysis a good use of time? In my humble opinion the answer is a rather emphatic no, except for one exception (which I'll discuss below). Almost always Path Analysis tends to be a sub optimal use of our time, resources and any money that is expended on buying tools that do 'great' Path Analysis.
Kaushik, Avinash. Occam's Razor (2006). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Log Analysis
#21027
Peaks and Pitfalls of Implementing a New Documentation Strategy
In 1993, Compaq Computer Corporation ventured into a totally different market--the consumer market. Once known primarily as a company that manufactured high quality, expensive business computers through its elaborate dealer network, Compaq was faced with selling its units to consumers through retail outlets. As a result, the PC Marketing Communications department concluded that its current documentation set was not giving the students; retirees; homemakers; and small business owners, who work out of their home offices, the kind of information they needed to be productive. This led the department to the challenge of creating a new documentation set that would meet the needs of these new customers.
Clifton, Deborah, Deborah R. Crockett, Diana Jaques and Sharon B. Jones. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design
#21552
Strategies for building a custom 404 page that enhances usability and makes the most of an otherwise lost cause.
Lloyd, Ian. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design
#23996
It's easy to assemble a set of user characteristics and call it a persona, but it's not so easy to create personas that are truly effective design and communication tools. If you have begun to create your own personas, here are some tips to help you perfect them.
Goodwin, Kim. Cooper Interaction Design (2001). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design>Personas
#23351
Persona Creation and Usage Toolkit
This toolkit enables you to build up detailed profiles of the personas themselves, their relationship to the product, and the context in which they use the product. The intended user of the toolkit is the product's designer, so it's it advisable to streamline the personas to critical aspects when presenting them outside the product development team. Even within the development team, not everyone may need every single detail about the persona.
Olsen, George. IAsummit (2004). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Personas
#29271
Personas are a useful tool, but they need to be built with care. It's very easy to write a persona which on a quick glance looks good, but is actually not.
