User-Centered Design is making user interfaces that:

• focus on user needs
• allow users to efficiently accomplish their tasks
• in other words, user productivity

The motivation of this is to develop a design framework allowing interaction designers to build more realistic systems that are easier to use and that better meet the needs of users.

Principles:

• Focus on users:
  • Study cognitive, behavioral and attitudinal characteristics
• Focus on tasks:
  • Define and understand user tasks
• Iterative design:
  • Design, prototype, evaluate, redesign

Spiral Model

• Admit to oursleves that we will not get it right on the first try
• Make early iterations as cheap as possible
  • paper prototyping
• Results of the evaluation will inform our design (rather than preconceived opinions)
• Must ensure that designers do not get emotionally attached to a design

When do we stop?

• When the obtained results are satisfying
• When the usability goals have been achieved
• Until you run out of money...

Learning some design guidelines should help reduce the number of iterations...