Everyone knows that I’m probably more technical than most people out there. I code, I use Linux, I can administer your network and I can probably (most likely) snoop on what you’re doing on the Internet. However, today (or at least in this post) I am an advocate for user centric design. I was taught in school to do requirements analysis before building anything. Meaning: figure out what you’re going to build before you actually build it. Make sense right? Absolutely, but lets take it one step further.
When most people they think of user centric design they usually think usability (testing). Which is great (according to Jakob Nielsen you’re in stage 3 of 8)! See, usability is usually done after the design has been conceived and you need to validate it. Meaning: you have a prototype in some shape or form and now you want to validate it with actual users. Not very good however when you’ve spent weeks writing some code and your usability tests yield that you have to rewrite a good chunk of your app.
User centric design is a mindset, I believe. It is a mindset that we technical people must adapt to evolve with the changing times. Usability is definitely a first step. It opens the eyes to this mythical user. But it cannot stop at just usability. This mindset of understanding and building things for the user should be kept throughout our whole design and development process. It also includes choosing the right tools and methodologies. One thing to note: unless the ‘user’ is technical (a coder, a Linux user a network administrator or a general geek), the ‘user’ probably isn’t you.
For example, when doing a requirements analysis, why not draw out how you see the application functioning on the screen with a pencil and paper? Use cases are fine, but they usually just tell us that a user needs to put widget A into container B. It doesn’t tell us HOW the action should be carried out. Is it dragging and dropping? Is it a file upload text box? Is it somewhat automatic and predictive? A quick drawing with arrows and stick figures (I kid you not) really does help you validate that picture in your head with a user.
There are a tonne of examples out there from many different advocates. I just wanted to contribute my own opinions. If you’re still interested (meaning: I didn’t bore you to death) here are a few links that are definitely worth checking out:
If anyone has anymore links (aside from the ones that I’ve listed above) or even opinions/questions, please feel free to post in the comments.
9:20 am
