Introduction To User Centered Design
by The Blazing Lucidity Staff
Consider a typical scenario: You perform a key word search and click onto a web site. Your initial reaction to the layout, colors, and the thought-provoking photo or tagline is positive enough. But as you look around start reading, you become discouraged, and unless something remarkable happens to change your opinion of this web site, you’ll be going somewhere else (read: you'll be going back to the search page).
This scenario is common today, but it doesn't have to be. Web users today are increasingly savvy and demanding, and if your web site does not fulfill them in the first 5-10 seconds, many will choose to click off to somewhere else. Enter User-Centered Design Principles.
What is User Centered Design?
User-centered design is a philosophy that places importance on the intended end user's experience of a product, interface, or event. You can implement a user-centered design approach for any product – an espresso maker, a mobile phone, or a web site. There is no standard methodology, because it is as much an approach as it is a design process. Essentially, it means treating the user of your product like they matter, and looking at it from the user's perspective.
In our example, the user chose to explore other options because they concluded that the web site they visited did not offer them what they were seeking. This could have occurred for a number of reasons: The navigation was not intuitive, the site structure was confusing, links did not go to where the user thought they should go. If the site does offer what the user wants then the behavior is most likely due to a failure of the web site to demonstrate this effectively. The Internet user is not a captive audience member – they have many options. The goal of a user-centered design approach is to increase the appeal of the site, resulting in the user enjoying a positive experience instead of clicking off.
The web has become a powerful marketing medium, communication portal, and first point of contact for many companies, and their customers are judging companies on the extent to which their online presence meets their expectations. A competitive online presence today means more than a site that looks good and offers information or product; the best sites work to foster meaningful interaction with their users, increasing the likelihood that they will have an online experience that will bring them back again.
