WEEK 8 READING NOTES

"In user-centered design, decisions are made based on responses obtained from target users of the system. (This is in contrast with standard software practice in which the designers assume they know what users need, and so write the code first and assess it with users later.) In user-centered design, first a needs assessment is performed in which the designers investigate who the users are, what their goals are, and what tasks they have to complete in order to achieve those goals. The next stage is a task analysis in which the designers characterize which steps the users need to take to complete their tasks, decide which user goals they will attempt to support, and then create scenarios which exemplify these tasks being executed by the target user population (Kuniavsky, 2003, Mayhew, 1999). "

The first step to do user-centered design is to define the target users group. Once getting known about the target users, analyzers could conclude their requirements and than help developers find proper way to design several functions to meet the requirements. The target users and the design goal are the fundermental factors of user-centered design. Thus, it is necessary to focus on this part. Without concentrating a lot on this part, the product might be useless or unsatified for users. This kind of situation is not what we want to see. Analyzing the requirements is an important step too. It requires analyzers to be experienced and working efficiently. By combining the target users group and requirement analysis, the design goal could be clear for designers to do further works.