Web Design and Development > User Centered Design
User Centered Design Leads to Successful Websites
How?
1. User Profiling
When it comes to developing a user friendly website one of the first and most important questions to ask is, “Who am I building this site for?” More specifically, what will this audience be looking for in my site?
With user profiling we look at specific data criteria to create different user types or profiles. These different user profiles are then tested separately to see how they interact with different functions of a website. Since different profiles have different motivations and needs, properly profiling individuals is a very important step in creating a strong functioning website.
Gaining a sense of what your specific user profile looks for in a website helps in creating what we call the ‘User Journey’. Essentially, this is the route a user will take in navigating through the content of your website. Once you are able to create a journey that matches up with your user profile, creating a successful design is much easier to do.
Some criteria that we look at when determining a user profile are:
- Age
- Gender
- Profession
- Experience with being online
- Geographic Location
- The users preferred sites
- Handicaps
- Attitudes and Expectations
- Motivations
2. User Scenario Design
User scenario design builds off of the user profiles that we create. Since different user groups will visit your site for different reasons, it is important that you test for all possible user scenarios. This approach helps to solve problems early on in the design and prevents major usability problems after development.
Typically, we create about 5 to 6 user tasks that would be considered typical to that particular group. Tasks can vary extensively depending on the type of site that is being built, as well the detail with which each group may be looking at items on your website.
