We have recently produced a downloadable 1 page process overview for User Centered Design (UCD). I felt that it will be good to share this with our blog readers rather than this just been part of our consultancy process with our direct clients.
Below I have pulled out all the definitions of each phase in the UCD process, along with a summary of the services which are delivered during each phase.
Please note, some of the terminology used may not be too familiar to some readers, but rather than describing each service I wanted to keep this post more to the point. Feel free to call us for further information on a particular service or terminology used.
Table of contents:
The 4 phases of User Centered Design
- Analysis
- Design
- Implementation
- Deployment
You will notice that there isn’t an order assigned to the 4 phases, as UCD is a process of continual improvement. For the development of completely new business systems, applications and e-commerce platforms, the process would start with the analysis phase and work through the remaining 3 phases, but during the deployment phase on-going evaluation of the system and the users does mean that the process can then be continued, back in to the analysis phase (but to a lesser extent).
The analysis phase
DEFINITION
This phase ensures all business and user requirements are taken into consideration, prior to the start of the design phase
Purple Fire services:
- stakeholder analysis
- competitor benchmarking
- persona development
- defining user scenarios
- conducting field studies
- defining usability goals
The design phase
DEFINITION
This phase provides a comprehensive approach to the design of the system, ensuring the design meets all user and business requirements
PurpleFire services:
- navigation models
- screen flow samples
- information architecture
- card sorting
- paper prototyping
- wireframing
- interaction design
- user testing
The implementation phase
Definition
This phase takes the user tested system and interaction designs and implements them into working systems ready to go live
Purple Fire services:
- object orientated design
- user interface integration
- server implementation
- heuristic evaluations
- user testing
- documentation
The deployment phase
Definition
This phase involves continuous evaluation of the new system, monitoring the performance against usability objectives
Purple Fire services:
- user/customer surveys
- field studies
- performance analysis
- improvement scoping
- continuous analysis
And finally, a UCD definition as seen on our UCDcommerce site
In broad terms, user-centered design (UCD) is a design 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.
Further reading
Below are a range of links which will provide additional information on User Centered Design
- User Centered Design and Web Development Article
- What is User Centered Design – from the Usability Professionals Association
- Adapting Usability Investigations for Agile User Centered Design
- The Role of User Centered Design and Usability in a Project
Variations in UCD methodology- what are yours?
There will always be slight variation’s in the process with other usability and software development agencies, and I’ll be interested to hear comments on these differences.
On saying this, one thing is for sure – when following User Centered Design principles, users need to be an integral part of the complete design and development process.
