What is User Centered Design?

In this article we are going to talk about a very important concept for those who work in the areas of UX and Usability: user-centered design (or User Centered Design, in the English version). And it is all the more important as it continues to be a concept very little understood in the software development industry, where many professionals continue to see design as drawings and layouts to beautify the applications developed in the meantime. (We have previously written about the outcome of this way of thinking.)

According to the ISO 13407 , “ Human-centered design is characterized by: the active involvement of users and a clear understanding of user and task requirements; an appropriate allocation of function between users and technology; the iteration of design solutions; multi-disciplinary design. ”

Thus, we speak of a holistic, multidisciplinary and iterative approach to the production of interfaces, according to the principles of UX and usability. Rubin and Chisnell (see reference below) call attention to the need to contextualize usability before moving on to measurement. “(…) it is important for the reader to understand the basic principles of UCD in order to understand the context for performing usability testing.
Usability testing is not UCD itself; it is merely one of several techniques for helping to ensure a good, user-centered design. We want to emphasize these basic principles of user-centered design:

• Early focus on users and their tasks
• Evaluation and measurement of product usage
• Iterative design"

User-centric design calls for a new approach to the way companies develop their products. Although there are no universal formulas for success, there are some common attributes that companies that practice this path share:

• Phases that include user input
• Multidisciplinary teams
• Attentive management to the process
• Perspective of continuous learning
• Defining previous usability goals