User-centered Design, Activity-centered Design, And Goal .
User-Centered Design, Activity-Centered Design,and Goal-Directed Design: A Review of Three Methodsfor Designing Web ApplicationsAshley WilliamsBridgeline Software10 Sixth RoadWoburn, MA 01801ashleyew@gmail.comactivity is evaluative in nature (like usability) or generative (likeinformation architecture), these methods—or at least aspects ofthese methods—can be brought to bear upon the work at hand. Tobetter understand similarities and differences among these threemethods in business settings, this paper reviews each method interms of its foundations, processes, and deliverables.ABSTRACTWhen conducting research with users in order to design webapplications, the practitioner has a variety of methods from whichto choose. This paper examines three such methods—UserCentered Design (UCD), Goal-Directed Design (GDD), andActivity-Centered Design (ACD)—in terms of their foundations,processes, and deliverables.2. USER-CENTERED DESIGN (UCD)Categories and Subject DescriptorsUser-Centered Design may be considered a practice, field, craft,framework, philosophy, discipline, or method of designing toolsfor human use by involving humans in the design process.Regardless of how one couches UCD—framework, philosophy,etc.—the defining tenet of UCD concerns placing users at thecenter of design decisions. This is not to say that users themselvesare producing the final design deliverables, even though usersmay engage in design activities as participants of design research.As Nielsen notes, “users are not designers, and designers are notusers” [1:12-13]. Further, user-centered design is not about askingusers directly what they want [8: 283, 284]—indeed, to do sowould be to introduce bias. Rather, UCD is about a UCDpractitioner (such as a user experience architect, interactiondesigner, information architect, etc.) profiling users and definingtheir behaviors of use of and preferences for various aspects of agiven application, and using that information to then make designdecisions about the web application. In this regard, UCD is acollaboration between designer and user.H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Presentation]: Userinterfaces – evaluation/methodology, theory and methods, usercentered design. D.2.1 [Software Engineering]: Requirements /Specifications. D.2.2 [Software Engineering]: Design Tools andTechniques – user interfaces. D.2.10 [Software Engineering]:Design – methodologies.General TermsMeasurement, Documentation, Design, Human Factors.KeywordsUser centered design, UCD, activity centered design, ACD, goaldirected design, GDD, user experience, user interface, usability,contextual inquiry, content strategy, information architecture, IA,personas, web design, interface design, interaction design.1. INTRODUCTION2.1 UCD FoundationsThis paper examines three methods that are often used byresearchers and designers as they help create web sites orapplications. The methods are User-Centered Design (UCD),Goal-Directed Design (GDD), and Activity-Centered Design(ACD). Of course, web designers and researchers are not the onlyones to employ these methods in the course of their work. Thesemethods apply readily to such related disciplines and activities astechnical communication, information architecture (IA), usability,Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), human factors, and contentstrategy, etc. Regardless of whether the given related discipline orUser-Centered Design has multiple methods-, research-, andtheory-related precursors from the 1980s and 1990s, includingwhat was commonly referred to as Usability Engineering (e.g.,see [1]) and Human-Computer Interaction (e.g., [2], [4], [5], [6]).Usability engineering serves as a solid foundation given its focuson the user, the user interface (UI), and the user’s goals andapproaches to the task at hand. Human-Computer Interaction(HCI) also makes sense given that it has historically approachedcomputer use from the perspectives of cognitive psychology,computer engineering, and system design. However, there arelesser known terms to describe the foundations of User-CenteredDesign (e.g., “cognitive engineering” [3]).Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work forpersonal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies arenot made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and thatcopies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copyotherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists,requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.SIGDOC’09, October 5–7, 2009, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.Copyright 2009 ACM 978-1-60558-559-8/09/10. 10.00.Use of the term User-Centered Design can be traced to the 1986publication, User Centered System Design: New Perspectives onHuman-Computer Interaction [6]. However, if one were topinpoint the foundation of UCD, one cannot overlook the role thatXerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has played. PARC1
worse, make design decisions based on their personal vision forthe website or personal preferences for interacting with a website.And stakeholder’s visions and preferences are likely to bedifferent from users’.was established in 1970. By 1971, the “impact of thepsychological advances on the human factors of how computerswere used was not yet very great, though the potential was clearlythere” [4]. In 1974, the Applied Information-ProcessingPsychology Project (AIP) was formed. The charter of this unitwas to “create an applied psychology of human-computerinteraction by conducting requisite basic research within a contextof application” [4]. If Xerox PARC is said to be the foundation ofUCD, then this charter is clearly its cornerstone.2.2.1.2 Conducting Design ResearchConducting design research typically involves the following:Conducting background research as needed on the subjectmatter. If the designer doesn’t already have knowledge of thesubject matter, it is important to conduct background researchbefore interviewing users so that the designer may be as preparedas possible for the user interview. For example, if the project is abusiness-to-consumer (B2C) effort, the subject may be an onlinerecord store, and depending on his/her experience, the designermay need to research trends in e-commerce and transactionalsites. If the project is for a pharmaceutical company, the subjectmay be one or more aspects of early stage drug discovery, and thedesigner may need to conduct background research to becomefamiliar with relevant terms and processes, etc. beforeinterviewing users. If the project concerns financial services, thesubject matter may be annuities or mutual fund management,etc.). Background research includes interviews with subjectmatter experts (SMEs), an audit of the existing application if oneexists, and literature research. Data sources for literature researchvary by subject; one may research publications by Gartner orForrester, publications in Pub Med, or publications producedinternally, such as company white papers.2.2 UCD ProcessesThe UCD process comprises three phases: design research,design, and design evaluation. During research, the designer’spurpose is, among other things, to assess who the users are andwhat their needs are. The second phase, design, should beobvious: based on findings from design research the designerdesigns (the user interface, the document, the informationarchitecture, etc.). Once a design is drafted, the UCD practitionerthen evaluates the design with users and revises it as needed basedon the results of the evaluation. These three activities are merelythe core activities of the UCD process. The UCD practitioner mayalso contribute to sales and project management related tasks likedefining project scope and schedule, and he or she may alsoengage members of the project team such as creative visualdesigners and web and software developers in order to explain thedesign and even revise it as project or technical demands dictate.2.2.1 Phase 1 - Design ResearchAssessing competitors’ work. The designer evaluates or auditsrelated or competing websites or applications, etc.During design research, the designer’s purpose is to assess whothe users are and what their needs are. To say “understandingusers and their needs” is to put it simply. At a high level, designresearch typically involves planning, conducting, analyzing, andreporting on research data—each of which itself typicallyinvolves multiple steps. Only select steps are in described in thissection because detailing any of these steps could easily warrant astand-alone paper in itself. However, because the central tenet ofUCD is placing the user at the center of the design process, Iprovide in this section most detail about interviewing users.Interviews with users. User interviews can take multiple forms.The two types of interviewing techniques described here—inperson interviews and remote interviews—are popular; manylesser known but still effective interview techniques are availableto the UCD practitioner, such as day-in-the-life studies, selfdocumentary or self-reporting studies, diaries, beeper studies, etc.One of the most highly effective interview techniques is the “inperson interview.” In-person interviews themselves take multipleforms. (See [13] for more about interview practices andtechniques.) The designer may follow a contextual inquiryapproach (see [7]), by shadowing the user and observing their useof the application in the natural context in which they would useit. Observing their use of the application assumes that the projectis for a redesign of an application. If the project involves designof a new application, the designer would shadow the user andobserve the work they do in light of the application to bedeveloped. Or, instead of conducting a contextual interview, thedesigner may conduct a formal, face-to-face interview, asking amix of (A) planned and exploratory questions and (B) close- andopen-ended questions of the user. During formal interviews andcontextual inquiry, the designer may gather relevant sourcematerials used by the interviewee, and they may engage the userin such data gathering methods as card sorting, divide-the-dollar,free listing, concept testing, or A/B testing, etc.2.2.1.1 Planning Design ResearchPlanning design research typically involves focusing on thebusiness in order to identify up front their goals, constraints, andassumptions. By knowing the business’ goals and assumptions,the designer can make informed decisions about what to researchand how to conduct it—the two key activities of planningresearch. Planning research by focusing on the business involves:Defining who the business stakeholders are. In generally, theyare the business sponsors of the project and others persons in thecompany or organization who have something at stake in theproject.Interviewing the business stakeholders and articulating theirneeds. One could name the users stakeholders, since usersobviously have something at stake in the application. However, itis important to distinguish between business stakeholders’ needsand users’ needs. For example, the goals of the marketingdepartment as stakeholder are different from the goals of theprospective customer as user. In such a scenario, one goal of themarketing department is to increase sales. A goal of the user, onthe other hand, is to purchase something. Furthermore, businessstakeholders may make assumptions about what users want, orRemote interviews may be conducted by phone or web. The webbased remote interview involves both interviewer and intervieweeusing a web-based application that allows for such activities asscreen sharing (such as WebEx or GoToMeeting) and other waysof interacting such as point or gesture with the mouse cursor,2
findings. Beyond formal usability testing, other design evaluationtechniques include heuristic or expert reviews, satisfactionquestionnaires, walkthroughs, etc. For more details, see [11: 614622]click to select, or drag and drop, etc. (such as MindCanvas orWebSort).To help record notes during either type of in-person interview orduring remote interviews, the designer can take field notes usingpen and paper or computer, take screen shots of a computerscreen, take photographs, and/or record audio or video.Alternately, rather than have only one designer conduct andrecord the interview, a team may be employed, whereby onedesigner asks questions and in general facilitates the interview,while a second designer takes notes.2.3 UCD DeliverablesThis section lists common deliverables produced during each ofthe three UCD phases. By “deliverable,” I mean a documentsubmitted formally to a client, customer, or key stakeholder.During the UCD process, many other kinds of documents areproduced which are not formally shared with others outside of themembers of the UCD team or project team. These other kinds ofdocuments include field notes taken during interviews, variousdocuments and spreadsheets used during data analysis, sketchesdrafted during the early stages of the design phase, and usabilitytest scripts and observation coding forms prepared for use duringthe design evaluation phase.Secondary forms of research. These include surveys;questionnaires; reviewing SEO data (such as key search termsentered into external and internal search engines), analytics data(such as abandonment rates and click-through rates), and log files(e.g., server logs, search logs, etc.); and gathering informationfrom customer support, technical support, and/or marketingresearch.2.3.1 Design Research Deliverables2.2.1.3 Analyzing Design ResearchDuring design research, the deliverables shown in Table 1 aretypically produced. This list is by no means exhaustive.Analyzing design research can take multiple forms, depending onthe type of research conducted, the kinds of data gathered, and theoverall purpose and goals of the project. Since UCD researchtends to be qualitative, common analytic techniques includedebriefing (with interviewees and/or with the UCD team, if thereis one); listing (e.g., listing early guesses, key findings, and/or keyrecommendations, etc.); and clustering (reviewing the data andnoting trends such as similar needs between different types ofinterviewees).Table 1. Sample deliverables produced duringthe design research phase of the UCD process2.2.1.4 Reporting on Design ResearchReporting on design research involves writing and presentingfindings about the users and their needs and recommendationsabout the design direction, etc. The content and style of the reportdepends on the audience and their needs for the report. Whilebusiness stakeholders, visual designers, technical architects, andengineers may need findings and recommendations based onUCD design research, each audience type has its own needs andwill use the results in different ways. For more information aboutreporting the results of design research, see [12].DeliverableDescriptionWrittenreport offindings andrecommendationsThis is typically formal in nature. Depending onthe scope of the project, it may be long anddetailed, including such sections as an ExecutiveSummary, Table of Contents, Overview,Background, Methods, Audience profile, UserNeeds or Task Analysis, Usage Scenarios, UserRequirements, Business Requirements, andRecommendations. It may be delivered in one ormore formats, e.g., portable document format(.pdf), or web (.html).PresentationThe presentation is different from the report interms of the display of information. It is typicallyproduced in a software program like PowerPoint.PersonasThese are user archetypes that capture users’needs, etc. The “look and feel” of this deliverablevaries widely. For UCD purposes, an effectivepersona will describe a given user, his/her levelof knowledge, context of use [10], goals, tasks,constraints, and requirements (where arequirement isn’t merely a given system feature,it’s also the related task to be performed by theuser via the feature), etc. Note that UCD hasadopted Personas from GDD.Process FlowAlso called Task Flow, Wireflow, ActivityDiagram, or Decision Tree. Its purpose is torepresent the flow of a process such as a decisionmaking process, an information gatheringprocess, or a particular activity, etc.UsabilityTest PlanIf usability tests are planned, the best time todraft test plans is during the design researchphase, when results are fresh in the mind of thedesigner.2.2.2 Phase 2 - DesignThe design phase involves brainstorming and conceptualizing andsketching initial drafts of the design based on findings fromdesign research. Little is written in the UCD literature on howpractitioners tactically bring research findings to the designprocess; such information could benefit the field tremendously.After one or more sketches are produced, the UCD practitioneruses a relevant software program to produce one or more drafts ofvarious key design deliverables. Please see section 2.3 for a list ofdesign deliverables.2.2.3 Phase 3 - Design EvaluationEvaluating the design typically involves testing it for usability.Usability itself has a rich history and a large body of literatureand is considered a discipline unto itself. See [9] and [32] formore information about usability—but note for [9] that while thetitle of the book (Measuring the User Experience: Collecting,Analyzing, and Presenting Usability Metrics) suggests that theauthors will detail how to present usability findings, there isactually little information provided on presenting usability3
measured when testing for performance (that is, whether it’susable) and what will be assessed when testing for preference(that is, whether it’s useful and enjoyable to use), etc.2.3.2 Design DeliverablesDuring the design phase of UCD, the following deliverables aretypically produced by the UCD practitioner. Again, this list is notexhaustive, and many other kinds of documents are producedduring design.3. ACTIVITY-CENTERED DESIGN (ACD)3.1 ACD FoundationsTable 2. Sample deliverables produced during the designphase of the UCD processDeliverableDescriptionSitemapsThese are also called Site Diagrams. Theyprovide a “birds-eye” view of the site viahierarchical diagram of the pages of a website orapplication.WireframesWireframes are page-level schematics or“blueprints” for any given page of a web site orapplication. They are typically annotated toexplain various aspects of the user’s experience,such as how a user interacts with a given widget.They may also annotate social objects (tagging,sharing, social bookmarking, etc.) andopportunities to optimize the page for searchengines, etc.ProcessFlowsThe process flow is produced during this phaseonly if it was not created during the designresearch phase.PrototypesPrototypes are working models of the application.They may be low- or high-fidelity. Low fidelityprototypes (such as paper prototypes) tend tolook like wireframes. High fidelity prototypestend to be interactive, that is, clickable viacomputer mouse.ContentStrategyACD has roots in a variety of theories and disciplines. Like UCD,ACD has foundations in human-computer interaction [14]. But italso has roots in distributed cognition (e.g., [33]), computersupported collaborative work (CSCW) (e.g., [14], [34], and see[18]), and the highly democratic, Scandinavian ParticipatoryDesign (which itself has a large body of literature). ACD can alsobe traced to “postcognitivist theory and practice from the fields ofsociology, communication, education, and organizational studies,as well as from science and technology studies [ ], andcomputer-supported collaborative work” [18].However, its most notable theoretical roots are in ActivityTheory, which is richly documented in a large body of literature.The foundations of Activity-Centered Design can be tracedthrough Activity Theory to Russia, in Marx’s Theses onFeuerbach, and in a Soviet-era Russian theory of psychology(particularly the work of Vygotsky [16] and Leont’ev [17]) [15].Marx is mentioned here only because his concept of laborinformed Leont’ev’s concept of activity.Despite th
2. USER-CENTERED DESIGN (UCD) User-Centered Design may be considered a practice, field, craft, framework, philosophy, discipline, or method of designing tools for human use by involving humans in the design process. Regardless of how one couches UCD—framework, philosophy, etc.—the defining tenet of UCD concerns placing users at the
Adapting user-centered design methods to design for diverse populations Abstract User-centered design methods such as personas and scenarios are useful tools for communicating extensive user research to designers. However, intensive data collection and onsite fieldwork required for personas and scenarios development can present a barrier for user
The design of Interface Design uses a Design method based on the Human-Centered Design (HDC) approach which is a human-oriented design method so that designs that are made meet human needs and are useful. User needs are a major factor in Human-Centered Design. The HCD method is done by understanding the user first and knowing what the user needs.
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“Personas ”, archetypes of possible service users. They represent specific types of users on which the user centered co-design of the service is based. . User - Centered Design approach may take longer than a traditional one, but itcanbringgreateradvantages, helping the identification
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