User Centred Design and usability services

User Centred Design & usability

We may not recognise a well designed computer system or website, however we all have experience of badly designed ones, where our frustration boils over and the computer is lucky to avoid being thrown through the nearest window! A positive, supportive and enjoyable user experience is not usually the result of good luck, but from a methodology that places the user in the middle of the design and development process. User Centred Design isn't new thinking for the www-age, but a well worn and accepted methodology used by organisations of all shapes and sizes to ensure their systems hit the mark when it comes to the user experience.

In defence, rail and many other safety critical contexts, user centred design is an integrated component of the design process ensuring that users achieve their system objectives efficiently, effectively and with few or no errors - often in intensely demanding environmental and emotional conditions.

No matter what the context of use for the system or website though, taking a user centred design approach will ensure that the system design is matched to the user population, their objectives, competencies, thinking and learning styles, and backgrounds. For a fully effective user experience, start thinking about usability and the user experience from the early conceptual work on your project, and then build the user centred design approach into the project lifecycle.

There are a number of ISO standards covering user centred design. The main one is ISO 13407: Human-centred design process.

Typical user centred design activities

Analysis Phase

Meet with key stakeholders to set vision
Include usability tasks in the project plan
Assemble a multidisciplinary team to ensure complete expertise
Develop usability goals and objectives
Conduct field studies
Look at competitive products
Create user profiles (personas)
Develop a task analysis
Document user scenarios
Document user performance requirements

Design Phase

Begin to brainstorm design concepts and metaphors
Develop screen flow and navigation model
Do walkthroughs of design concepts
Begin design with paper and pencil
Create low-fidelity prototypes (wireframes)
Conduct usability testing on wireframes
Create high-fidelity detailed design
Do usability testing again
Document standards and guidelines
Create a design specification

Implementation Phase

Do ongoing heuristic evaluations
Work closely with delivery team as design is implemented
Conduct usability testing as soon as possible

Deployment Phase

Use surveys to get user feedback
Conduct field studies to get info about actual use
Check objectives using usability testing

Cartoon image of man sitting at laptop with hands in the air in triumph

Key Benefits

User Centred Design provides important benefits in terms of cost, product quality, and customer satisfaction.
It can improve development productivity through more efficient design and fewer code revisions.
It can help to eliminate over-design by emphasizing the functionality required to meet the needs of real users.
Design problems can be detected earlier in the development process, saving both time and money.
It can provide further cost savings through reduced support costs, reduced training requirements, and greater user productivity.
A usable product means more satisfied customers and a better reputation for the product and for the organisation that developed it.

Capabilities

MBarron Consulting Ltd will work with your company to make your products easy to learn, easy to use, aesthetically pleasing, and market winners. Our User Centred Design consultants have extensive experience in sectors including defence, oil and gas, mobile communications, emergency services and transportation.

All our usability consultants are experienced in the application of usability standards and methods, while maintaining the essential pragmatism necessary to innovate in this exciting area.