User Centred Design (UCD) Presentation

User Centred Design

Vinai Kumar

10 Aug 2011 Wed

IP & P

Introduction to Design: Issues and Methods

National Institute of Design (NID) Paldi Ahmedabad

User-Centric Design

• User-centricity was always a major driving concern of the early humans

– Which led to the development of

• Technologies

– enabling ease of work and living

• Markets – taking the benefit to other humans

– Which in turn led to the development of

• Engineering professionals

– Efficiency, productivity, delivery

• Business management professionals

– Return on investment, profits, more money for themselves

10 Aug 2011 Wednesday 2Vinai Kumar UCD

User-Centric Design

• Technologies were developed …without human user consideration

…by the people who knew (technologists)

• What was built had to be sold

(business economics)

…Which required business professionals

…To hard-sell

…To earn profits for their employers

• RESULT:

– The Human User was forgotten


User-Centric Design

• What human users need

in a product or system

– Usefulness


User-Centric Design



– Safety


User-Centric Design



– Ease of use


User-Centric Design



– Emotional connect


User-Centric Design

• What human users need in a product or system

– Usefulness

– Safety and hygiene

– Ease of use

– Emotional connect

• Imperative:

– We need to understandhuman users


User-Centric Design

Understanding users


User-Centric Design – Understanding Users

• Understanding users means

understanding their:

– Activities of living and

work





– Physical characteristics





– Communication needs





– Meanings



• Understanding users means understanding their:

– Work and Living

– Physical profiles

– Communication needs

– Meanings

• We need a knowledge and resource framework to understand human users


User-Centric Design (UCD)

The UCD framework


User-Centric Design (UCD) – Framework

The UCD framework

Usefulness

Usability

Emotional connect



Usefulness

• Functions and

features

• Contextual

relevance

• User value



Usability

• Safety

• Ease of use

• Comfort /

wellbeing



Emotional connect

• Trust

• Cultural relevance

• Social relevance

• Imageries


User-Centric Design (UCD) – the Core Knowledge

Ergonomics

Semiotics

Ethnography

Systems Thinking



Ergonomics



Ergonomics

– Understanding the

relationship between

humans and man-made

environment

– Applying this

understanding to:

• Productivity of systems

• Safety and hygiene

• Ease of use

• Comfort and wellbeing


System

Characteristics

Task

Characteristics

User

Characteristics

Environmental

Characteristics

System Behaviour

User Reaction ( + / _ )


Ergonomics

– Physical Ergonomics

• Anatomy

• Biomechanics

• Anthropometry

• Physiology



Ergonomics

– Psychological Ergonomics

• Senses– Design for information

acquisition

– Design for sensory experience

• Perception– Information organizational

tendencies

» Gestalt laws

» Conditioned responses

• Cognition– Understanding

– Pattern recognition and construction

– Learning



Ergonomics

– Environmental Ergonomics

• Lighting

– Avoid glare

– Contrasts for lighting

central / peripheral

areas

• Climate

– Temperature

– Humidity

– Air velocity



Ergonomics

– Task analysis (TA)

• Types of tasks

– Physical

– Perceptual

– Cognitive

• Task severity

– Duration

– Frequency

– Criticality

– TA is performed to

understand the ‘demands’

on the human user



• Ergonomics

– The twelve principles – (Macleod)



Semiotics



• UCD Core Knowledge:

– Semiotics

• Syntactics

• Semantics

• Pragmatics



Ethnography




– Ethnography

• Culture

• What people actually do

• Sociological inferences

• Behavioural inferences



Systems Thinking




– Systems Thinking

• Multi- and inter-

disciplinary

• Addresses the dynamics

and complexities of the

world around us

• A method based on

Right side and Left side

brains

• User and Context

analysis


User-Centric Design (UCD)

UCD Process


User-Centric Design (UCD) – the Process

• UCD Process

– User and Contextual

Research

– Ideation

– Modeling & Prototyping

– User trials


User-Centric Design (UCD) - References

• www.ergoweb.com

• www.danmacleod.com

• http://sites.google.com/site/vinaik

umar/papers

• Ergonomics in Computerised

Offices – E. Grandjean

• Fitting the Human – KHE

Kroemer

• Systems Thinking for Problem

Solving – Vinai Kumar


http://www.ergoweb.com/

http://www.danmacleod.com/

http://sites.google.com/site/vinaikumar/papers

http://sites.google.com/site/vinaikumar/papers
