User Centered Design

User Centered Design (”UCD”) is one of the buzzwords that is bordering precariously on being overused. However, when you look at what UCD really means and what it can do for a software application, you can understand that the “buzz” is well-founded.

UCD means that the application you’re building is designed to be intuitive and accessible to users. This doesn’t mean just pretty layout and widgets-although that helps-but starts with an understanding of what the user is coming to your application for. It then tries to take into account all of the things that a user is going to do while using your application. This then informs what functionality needs to be available when and where.

Typically, our UCD process looks like this:

The process isn’t always linear but getting the information right at this stage facilitates building the application and improves customer satisfaction with the end product. Furthermore, not all steps are required, but our experience is that products that start off with this information are better for it.

Integrating Development and Design = Successful Products

CoreObjects has been fortunate to work with a wide variety of design firms in the course of delivering products for our customers. These firms provide exceptional creativity and top-notch designs. The tricky part is getting the design then to work well with the application development.

While we specialize in making these engagements work, we have also realized there is substantial overhead in managing the relationship, setting and hitting expectations, and overall communication. In part, that is why CoreObjects has made the investment in our CoreObjects User Experience team (“CRUX”). We select our CRUX resources because of their demonstrated understanding of UCD, creativity and professionalism in design, and their involvement in the engineering of applications. It is this last point that really sets our team apart. Each CRUX resource has experience building applications so we have a fundamental understanding of what is possible and what trade-offs need to be made between certain elements of design, engineering feasibility, and time-to-market.

What we strive for is a seamless integration of design with engineering.