UCD « Five Sketches™

Testing in the UX-design process

Three weeks ago, a client called me. They had just completed release 1.0 of a new Web application that will replace their current flagship product. The client was asking about summative usability testing to evaluate how well the product performs in the hands of users, because they want their customers to succeed.

Since the product […]

Design requires courage and trust, not just user involvement

Designing is usually a rewarding activity, but the path from start to finish can be filled with frustration and even panic. I’ve seen design processes work—and come to the realisation that “My own designs benefited from rapid iteration!”

These humbling experiences helped me learn to trust the process, even in the face of frustration or […]

How to test earlier

Involving users throughout the software-development cycle is touted as a way to ensure project success. Does usability testing count as user contact? You bet! But since most companies test their products later in the process, when it’s difficult to react meaningfully to the user feedback, here are two ways to get your testing done sooner.

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Which user involvement works

User-centred design (UCD) advocated involving users in the design process. Have you wondered what form that user involvement could take, and which forms lead to the most successful outcomes?

I recently came across data that Mark Keil published a while ago. He surveyed software companies and correlated project outcomes with the type of user access […]

Rigid UCD methodology fails?

I received an e-mail from someone at the 2008 IA Summit about Jared Spool’s declaration that UCD is dead:

— — — Forwarded message — — — From: P Date: Sun 13/04/2008, 2:54 PM

Hi Jerome,

I’m at the iA Summit in Miami right now, and hearing about all of the things that are going on makes me think of you. […]

Complicated GUI is fixable

According to usability guru Jakob Nielsen, the worst mistakes in GUI design are domain-specific. Usually, he says, applications fail because they:

solve the wrong problem. have the wrong features for the right problem. make the right features too complicated to understand.

Nielsen’s last point reminds me of what a product manager once told me: many […]

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