The Disciplines of User-Centered Design
Good design creates value and builds competitive advantages for a company, as witnessed by Apple’s dominance in the technology industry over the years. Aside from the beautiful and easy-to-use products the Silicon Valley company is known for, the designers at Apple practice the disciplines of User-Centered Design to deliver a seamless and simple experience for their customers.
User-Centered Design
User-Centered Design (UCD) is a design process that focuses on end users and their needs within the product development cycle. Designers take input from the user and ultimately return with a better product or service. At Acorn Product Development, UCD encompasses the practice of User Experience Design (UX), Industrial Design (ID), and User Interface Design (UI). The common objective of all three disciplines is to capture the needs of the user and to provide a compelling yet satisfying experience.
User Experience Design
UX focuses on understanding the user’s needs, values, abilities, and limitations. Owning these valuable insights will elevate the product’s usefulness and the user’s desire by creating new opportunities. Extensive research and user testing can improve the quality of user interaction and perception of a product or service.
Typical UX investigation produces descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analyses to set product requirements for the development phases. UX designers also cohesively incorporate human factors, marketing, functionality, trends, risks, etc. into the research investigation.
Industrial Design
ID challenges the paradigm and explores possibilities for the purpose of creating value for the client’s product and brand. By incorporating UX, industrial designers become user advocates and deliver pleasant experiences with creativity.
The ID process includes designing physical products, devices, objects, and services. The primary objective is to address a product’s physical aesthetics, functional features, and manufacturability. Designers must work closely with engineers to produce the highest quality product within the engineering, manufacturing, and marketing requirements throughout all phases of the development process.
User Interface Design
UI covers the design of interfaces and interactions in software and physical products. Examples of UI influences can be found in the graphic user interface of a smartphone or physical buttons of car interior panels. In both cases, the goal of UI is always to ensure the user can navigate and operate the product with ease and satisfaction.
With requirements defined by UX, UI design starts the project by defining the architecture, navigation, and workflow of the product. Then designers will design and build prototypes of the interface to ensure the user can complete the task with minimal effort. Lastly, the UI designer needs to work side-by-side with software developers to realize the product and deliver optimal usability and likeability.
Acorn’s UCD Team
The UCD team at Acorn Product Development believes the success of a product depends on a satisfactory user experience. We should always position users at the center of our decision-making while navigating the product development process. Visit www.acornpd.com or contact us at info@acornpd.com, to find out more about how to incorporate UCD to elevate the value, quality, and experience of your product.