Key principles for user-centred systems design

Abstract

Abstract. The concept of user-centred systems design (UCSD) has no agreed upon definition. Consequently, there is a great variety in the ways it is applied, which may lead to poor quality and poor usability in the resulting systems, as well as misconceptions about the effectiveness of UCSD. The purpose of this paper is to propose a definition of UCSD. We have identified 12 key principles for the adoption of a user-centred development process, principles that are based on existing theory, as well as research in and experiences from a large number of software development projects. The initial set of principles were applied and evaluated in a case study and modified accordingly. These principles can be used to communicate the nature of UCSD, evaluate a development process or develop systems development processes that support a usercentred approach. We also suggest activity lists and some tools for applying UCSD. Purpose and justificationThis paper describes the results of our current research on UCSD and our experiences of applying UCSD in software development projects. Our purpose has been to compile knowledge and experiences of UCSD, in order to give the concept a more precise meaning and to increase its power. The main point in our paper is that applying UCSD requires a profound shift of attitudes in systems development, and our main goal is to promote that attitude shift.

Varieties of User-Centeredness

“…Principle 9 requires that "the usability designer must be given the authority to decide on matters affecting the usability of the system and the future use situation" (p. 403). In accordance to [39] Gulliksen et al [29] define usability as "the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction, in a specified context of use", but interpret it to cover also usefulness or utility in addition to usability (pp. 401, 407).…”

“…Recognizing that the concept of UCD is ambiguously defined, Gulliksen et al [29] propose twelve principles for UCD (Table 1). These principles obviously define UCD more clearly, even though it is questionable whether principle 9 in particular should be included.…”

“…It would mean that all stakeholders related to the system would delegate the decision-making power to the hands of the usability designer or usability group. 2 Table 1: Principles of user-centered system design according to Gulliksen et al [29] 1 User focus -the goals of the activity, the work domain or context of use, the users' goals, tasks and needs should early guide the development. 2…”

“…1 However, despite the interest [58], the concept is still unclear [11], [29], [45], [54]. Although the phrase "user-centered" emerged in the human computer interaction (HCI) field, it can be argued of having adopted ideas from different sources, such as prototyping [48], [23], [10], evolutionary delivery [48], socio-technical design [6], [64], [72], [21], user participation [64], participatory design [27], [77] and usability engineering (UE) [45], [63], [66].…”

Institutionalizing human-computer interaction for global health

“…To be able to develop usable systems consciously one needs to adopt a user-centred design process. User-centred systems design can be defined as a process focusing on usability throughout the system life cycle and it is based on 12 key principles [5]. …”