Introduction to User-Centered Design
Brian Still, Kate Crane · 2017
In 2009, Jakob Nielsen and his user testing team at the Nielsen Norman Group reported findings from a study on mobile device usability. Most disconcerting and surprising to Nielsen and his team, as well as mobile device designers everywhere, was that users carrying out tasks as part of the 2009 study performed worse than similar users carrying out the same tasks with mobile devices in 2000. Design thinking is iterative in nature, but at the heart of how it works is empathy. Designers need to have empathy for a user’s experience. The product or process being designed falls down toward the users like a waterfall, and each phase of the process is started and completed in succession. Technology-centered designers want their products to work. EyeGuide designers wanted to be successful for its investors and for its users. Good User-Centered Design understands users, designing a product, and doing whatever it takes to make that product work them.