Textbook of Usability

Also known as: HCD, user-centred design, UCD

Human-Centred Design (HCD) is an approach to interactive systems development that aims to make systems usable and useful by focusing on the users, their needs and requirements, and by applying human factors/ergonomics, usability knowledge and techniques (ISO 9241-210).

HCD is iterative and consists of four key activities:

1. Understanding the context of use — who the users are, what they need to do, and where they will use the system
2. Specifying user requirements — what the system must do to meet user needs
3. Producing design solutions — prototypes, mockups, and working systems
4. Evaluating against requirements — usability testing, expert review, field studies

The cycle repeats until the design is good enough. Each iteration produces something to test, and the test results feed into the next iteration.

HCD distinguishes itself from technology-centred design (which starts with what the technology can do) and designer-centred design (which relies on the designer's intuition).