The Importance of User-Centered Design

According to the norm ISO 9241-210:2010, “ human-centered design is an approach to interactive systems development that aims to make systems usable and useful by focusing on the users, their needs and requirements, and by applying human factors/ergonomics, and usability knowledge and techniques”. In other words, User-Centered Design (UCD) is the process of designing a system (such as a tool, an application or an interface), from the perspective of how it will be understood and used by a human user.

With UCD, it is the product developed that has to adapt to human requirements and not users to adapt their behaviors in order to learn and use this product. In the case of software development, the solutions developed using UCD methodology are optimized for end-users and emphasis is placed on how the end-users need or want to use the solution. Employing UCD techniques during the development of a software will result in the delivery of a solution with higher user acceptance and better efficiency.

Benefits of UCD

1. Higher user acceptance
2. More satisfying and user-friendly experience for the user
3. Developed product will have higher customer loyalty
4. Increase usability, efficiency and productivity
5. From a developer’s perspective, UCD contributes to increase sales as, when given a choice, people tend to buy solutions that are more user-friendly.