If it is the first time that you hear about Human-centered design principles. We will do our best to make you understand what are HCD and its principles?
What is human-Centered Design?
HCD is a creative approach for problem-solving which make humans at the heart of the product development process. Human-Centered Design entails creating deep empathy with the users you’re designing with, generating ideas, building a bunch of prototypes, sharing what you’ve created together, and finally putting your innovative new solution into the world.
Why HCD is different from other problem-solving approaches?
The thing which makes Human-Centered Design are different about other problem-solving approaches, is focusing on users who use the products throughout their experiences.
It’s a process that begins with the users you’re designing for; And ends with innovative solutions that are suitable with their specific needs. It enables people to find the sweet spot of feasibility, viability, and desirability; While taking into account people’s true requirements and preferences.
So, Why HCD is important?
We can’t underestimate the value of using a Human-Centered Design process in product design, it leads to improved solutions that solve real-world problems for people, as well as potentially having an impact on a company’s bottom line.
Using HCD to design a system leads to a product, that provides a more efficient, enjoyable, and user-friendly experience for the user, resulting in improved sales and customer loyalty. We can help you to use HCD and improved sales and customer loyalty. When you contact us.
Human-Centered Design is an effective way of understanding changing behaviors, preferences, and pain points and focusing efforts in the right places and the right ways. Designers can build solutions that perform effectively and broadly in our new reality,—whatever it finally looks like—by unlocking the user’s perspective.
Product teams and designers that design products without considering the people who will use them will lead to failure. Failure to ask the right questions and not involve the end-user from the start, will almost always led to a product’s failure in the marketplace.
The systems that use HCD methods have the chances to:
- Enhancing user productivity and organizational operational efficiency.
- Being simpler to comprehend and use, resulting in lower training and support costs.
- Enhancing usability for persons with a broader variety of abilities, thus increasing accessibility.
- Improve the user experience.
- Reducing discomfort and pressure.
- Achieving a competitive advantage, such as via enhancing brand image.
- Contributing to long-term sustainability goals.
we can help your business to achieve all these benefits, you can contact us.
What are the Human-Centered Design principles?
Human-Centered Design is often based on principles to ensure that it remains focused on usability, throughout the design-driven development process and the system life cycle. Here is an overview of the principles for designing useable systems, which are suit for your specific interaction needs.
Create a design for the users and their needs
Before beginning a new project, it is critical to understand
- who the users are?
- What problems need which we can solve it, and how and when they will engage with the product?
- Why do people need this product?
- In what context will the users interact with it?
- What are their expectations? What are their characteristics and behaviors?
Understanding the user and how they will interact with the product is at the heart of user-centered design.
Early and frequent involvement of users
We should involve Users early and frequently. According to UCD. It is better if we involve the users earlier and more frequent in the design process, early involvement ensures that designers have a strong understanding of who their users are and what solutions they need.
Frequent interviews, user testing, and feedback that we collected, help designers in verifying their work and ensuring that their designs will be valuable to the customer. Because users are continually assessing, evaluating, and influencing design decisions, UCD projects are frequently highly flexible and evolve.
Keep it simple, clear, and consistent
A product designed using the HCD process will be easy for the user to interact with and decrease unnecessary mental effort. One of the best ways to acquire this is by maintaining the designs simple, clear, consistent. This means using understandable and simple language,
keeping the way interface elements behave consistently, and only including data that is relevant to the task. Many designers will depend on usability heuristics and mental models, to keep their designs consistent with what the user may expect or have already encountered.
Provide intuitive navigation
An important aspect of user-centered design is the ability to rapidly grasp how a product works and navigate through it with ease. Appropriate navigation cues, user onboarding, clearly visible page indications or scroll bars, and effective menus are all examples of how designers make engaging with a product simple and intuitive.
While completing their intended task, users should be able to follow a clear path through the app. If they become sidetracked or enter an undesired area, there should be obvious back or cancel buttons.
Offer help and feedback
A good designer can predict where a user could get stuck or where friction might emerge when using their product. As a result, it’s a good idea to provide tooltips, relevant and simple pop-ups, and positive reinforcement whenever possible. These features help users in determining whether or not they are on the right track.
Pages should be easily accessible, and the language that is used should be simple, sequential, and task-oriented. Additionally, animations, loading screens, and “task complete” pages should be used to reassure the user, that the task is being completed or has been completed.
Employ a user-centric approach to product delivery
Often, a designer’s work does not end with the creation of the finished product. Many designers are being tasked with improving product delivery procedures.
Not only can the UCD process be applied to the service itself, but also to how it is purchased, installed, updated, or even uninstalled or canceled. Giving users a positive experience before they ever open the app or product, might help them form a good impression of the brand or company.
When they ultimately engage with it, it might also put them in a more relaxed condition. Furthermore, a product that is simple to repair or cancel might increase the likelihood, that a user would purchase from the same company anyway in the future.
Utilize an iterative design process
Even if the user’s needs were considered from the beginning to the end of the design cycle, it is likely that once the product is released, there will still be user feedback that needs to be collected and integrated into future designs.
After completing the user-centered design steps, designers will evaluate their designs, gather more user insight, and iterate on their final product. As a result, the UCD process goes beyond the point at which a product is released to the market. We use it to guide and advise subsequent re-designs and improvements, ensuring that users receive the greatest possible product.
Allow the user to take control
The user is aware of what he or she needs, and the built system provides a solution. To perform what is necessary, the user should be able to take only what they need and leave the rest to support an individual request. The system’s constraints should be as minimal as possible, prompting developers to create simple solutions to achieve what users typically need.
References:
related posts:
2 Comments
Human-Centered Design - Osama Ali
[…] What are Human-Centered Design principles? […]
Human-Centered Design vs. Design Thinking - Osama Ali
[…] What are Human-Centered Design principles? […]