User-centred design: Develop suc­cess­ful products in dialogue with users

De­vel­op­ing digital products is often a lengthy and resource-intensive process. Companies launching a new website, de­vel­op­ing an app or producing digital content should have an in-depth un­der­stand­ing of the needs of their target group. Otherwise, months of work, heated debates among project team members and high budget in­vest­ments may lead to nothing.

The user-centred design process has es­tab­lished itself in the digital sector, in par­tic­u­lar, to ensure that companies don’t develop products the market doesn’t want, and that their products and services solve real problems, and are intuitive and pleasant to use.

ISO standard 9241-210:2019 (Er­go­nom­ics of human-system in­ter­ac­tions) defines the basic prin­ciples of user-centred design. It succeeds ISO 13407, which described the user-centred design of in­ter­act­ive systems.

When de­vel­op­ing new (digital) products and services, many companies lose them­selves in their own internal viewpoint. Instead of surveying users on the layout, design, and function of products from the outset, companies con­cen­trate on in­nov­at­ive tech­no­lo­gies, their corporate goals (what can we offer quickly with our existing resources?) and at­tract­ive graphic design. The resulting ap­plic­a­tions take some getting used to. Often, they’re not intuitive to use and don’t offer the functions users expect.

The user-centred design turns this approach on its head. It focuses on users’ needs, abilities and re­quire­ments, not corporate interests and cap­ab­il­it­ies. Before the actual de­vel­op­ment, the company analyses the users and their situation and seeks feedback re­peatedly during the de­vel­op­ment process. This allows them to build products in an iterative process and in close co­ordin­a­tion with customers.

User-centred design as a concept has been com­mon­place in product design since the 1990s and the user-centred design approach has become in­creas­ingly prominent in the digital sector in recent years.

Anyone reading up on user-centred design will sooner or later encounter the term human-centred design. Any dif­fer­ences between the concepts are marginal. While even experts use the terms syn­onym­ously, some see minor lin­guist­ic dif­fer­ences: The word ‘user’ refers to a specific target group, while the term ‘human’ is broader. As a result, they believe that human-centred design not only in­cor­por­ates users, but also other stake­hold­ers who interact in­dir­ectly with the new product being developed.

Design professor Donald A. Norman is one of the world’s leading experts on user-centred design and was one of the first to use the term. His pub­lic­a­tions reveal a lin­guist­ic change: while he used to write about user-centred design, his more recent pub­lic­a­tions feature the terms ‘human’ or ‘people-centred design’.

ISO standard 9241-210:2019 defines six fun­da­ment­al prin­ciples that form the basis of the user-centred design process:

1. Design is based on un­der­stand­ing users, their tasks and their en­vir­on­ment: It is not enough to have a vague im­pres­sion of the product’s target group. User-centred design requires deep immersion into the lives of users.
2. Users are involved through­out the entire de­vel­op­ment and design process: This is one of the main dif­fer­ences to other ap­proaches. Users are not just invited to assess a finished product, rather their opinions are the basis for de­vel­op­ment.
3. The design process is guided by user ratings: Users evaluate every prototype and every beta version, and this feedback is used to develop the product.
4. The process is iterative: The process steps in product de­vel­op­ment are performed non-linearly and re­peatedly. Feedback from users can make multiple it­er­a­tions of in­di­vidu­al phases necessary.
5. The entire user ex­per­i­ence is taken into account: The aim of user-centred design is not to make using a product as simple as possible. Instead, the process takes a broader view of the user ex­per­i­ence. Products should evoke positive emotions, offer genuine solutions and encourage users to use them re­peatedly.
6. The project team is multi-dis­cip­lin­ary: User-centred design requires close co­oper­a­tion across dis­cip­lines. There is no room for silo men­tal­it­ies in product de­vel­op­ment. User re­quire­ments can only be im­ple­men­ted optimally if copy­writers, graphic designers, and pro­gram­mers share their different per­spect­ives.

US company Money­think developed a financial app for young people from socially dis­ad­vant­aged back­grounds using the user-centred design process. Existing financial apps that are intended to encourage users to save in in­vest­ment funds, syn­chron­ise their various accounts and check com­pre­hens­ive stat­ist­ics were ir­rel­ev­ant to this target group. The new app was intended to focus on the specific needs of these young people by promoting financial education and helping them use their limited budgets re­spons­ibly.

Money­think held 90 in­ter­views with young people across seven different schools and colleges. The team immersed itself in the everyday lives of future users. They analysed and used other apps popular among young people (like Snapchat and Instagram) and collected ad­di­tion­al con­tex­tu­al in­form­a­tion by observing students at school and at home.

Their findings in­flu­enced the app de­vel­op­ment process. During design sprints, the team tested ways to make the app cooler and give it an Instagram factor. After the app was published and downloads did not quite meet ex­pect­a­tions, the team made some more ad­just­ments and collected detailed opinions from users, following the motto “what is important, doesn’t happen in the office”.

A con­sist­ent focus on user-centred design not only benefits the user, it’s also worth­while for companies.

1. Customer sat­is­fac­tion: Close in­teg­ra­tion of users in the early stages of the de­vel­op­ment process means that the end product is more likely to meet the customer’s ex­pect­a­tions. This boosts revenue and reduces customer service costs.
2. Product safety: The project team develops a product for a specific target group and a specific use case. As this in­form­a­tion is con­sidered in detail, the risk of in­ap­pro­pri­ate usage, which could endanger the user, decreases.
3. Quality: When de­velopers and designers get to know the needs, fears, and re­quire­ments of customers, they develop empathy. This results in more ethical and ergonomic products. Aspects that could have been neglected otherwise – like privacy or usability – become important.
4. Sus­tain­ab­il­ity: Because the per­spect­ive during de­vel­op­ment is shifted to the needs of potential customers, the resulting products appeal to a broader customer base. In this way, user-centred design also con­trib­utes to a company’s sus­tain­ab­il­ity goals.
5. Cost ef­fi­ciency: The costs for al­ter­a­tions remain re­l­at­ively low, because user feedback is con­sidered right from the start and not only at the end of the product de­vel­op­ment phase. This enables de­velopers to in­cor­por­ate user feedback from the get-go.
6. Com­pet­it­ive advantage: Since not all companies have made user-centred design their top priority or have had dif­fi­culty im­ple­ment­ing it, companies that work according to an effective user-centred design process can set them­selves apart from the com­pet­i­tion.

It remains to be seen whether the marketing sector will be talking about user-centred design, human-centred design or people-centred design in the years to come. Im­ple­ment­a­tion methods are not static; they will continue to change. However, one thing is already clear: user-centred design ap­proaches aren’t just a temporary fad, they’re already best practice in the digital sector. And they will grow in im­port­ance in the future given the volat­il­ity, un­cer­tainty, and com­plex­ity of the market.