User Centered Design
During my undergrad in architecture, I became aware of a nagging feeling about the inherent flaw of our design process. Our curriculum ultimately encouraged us to design for ourselves and elegant spatial designs came to be based on the mere 'beauty' of an architecture theory. We went to sites to understand the spatial opportunities, challenges and constraints; it was not however in our process to go out into the field and understand and survey the inhabitants of the space, their needs, challenges, and values for the program of the space.
Fortunately I came across the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) mid way through the 5 year professional architecture degree, and undertook a minor in information sciences. I further solidified more experiences in existing user centered design methodologies through the Masters in HCI at Carnegie Mellon University.
User centered design methods have allowed me to strive to place mechanisms that allow me to be a more empathetic designer. Maybe one day I can go back to the architecture field and share what the HCI community has contributed to the user experience design community!
SOME USER CENTERED DESIGN & PROTOTYPING METHODS
Cognitive Walkthroughs
Heuristic Evaluations
Contextual Inquiry Contextual Design
Think Aloud
Wizard of Oz
Body Storming
Fictional Artifact Creation
Scenario Focused Engineering
Personas
Mood Boards
Cultural Probes
New Methods I've Come Across:
Sensory Deprivation Brainstorming
Method Acting -- show a video of how an interface may work and ask participants to act out how they would've achieved the result!
Recent real people safaris I've participated in:
- Interviewed a small business Bed & Breakfast owner
- 2 college students and a staff at University of Washington on a semi-longitudinal study for Ribbon Hero
- Bridezilla ethnography -- study of emotions, transactions and expertise building in life changing events
- Frequent usability labs with technology warriors
EXAMPLES
Affinity Diagramming
Wizard of Oz
Persona
Mood Boards
Flow Diagram. C.I. Contextual Design
Cultural Model. C.I. Contextual Design.
Physical Model. C.I. Contextual Design.
