User centered

Design

I’m a certified user experience (UX) practitioner with a specialization in UX research. I received my certification from NN/G, world leaders in the field of UX, and I’ve completed 100+ hours of coursework and trainings in this area. I’m available for consultation and collaboration.

What is it?

User centered design is an iterative approach developed to address the user’s needs and experiences when interacting with a product (e.g., survey, website, intervention, app). It is also commonly referred to as human centered design, human interaction design, or UX design. 

User centered design is a combination of visual design and psychology. It consists of principles that focus on the usability of a product. Using qualitative and/or quantitative methods, this approach aims to not only understand the users, but also improve their experience so that product interactions can be as seamless as possible.

Usability Principles

Usability includes five key components that assess how easy a product is to use.

1) Learnability – Can users figure out how to use the product the first time?

2) Efficiency – Can users do what they need to do quickly?

3) Errors – Can users recover easily from a mistake when using the product?

4) Satisfaction – Do users enjoy interacting with the product?

5) Memorability – Can users remember how to use the product if they come back later on?

Why is it important?

User centered design has a lot of benefits. By talking directly with users, we learn more about their behaviors. This helps build empathy so that we can create better products to address the user’s wants and needs.

It also allows us to identify pain points (i.e., frustrations) related to the usability of products. When tested early, this saves time and money by avoiding costly redesigns of usability issues that could have been caught earlier.

By focusing on the users early and often, we can create products that users will actually want to use, and if we’re lucky, enjoy using.

My UX Journey

With my Pathway to Independence Award, I’ve been able to immerse myself in the design world. I’ve taken courses, read books, and bribed my UX designer friends with coffee to pick their brains about visual design, usability, and user experience.

After hundreds of hours, a lot of caffeine, and a handful of UX certifications later, I’ve explored different ways to incorporate user centered design into my intervention development studies. After a brief overview of the central concepts of user centered design, including the design thinking framework, I’ll touch on how I apply these concepts in my current studies.

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Design Thinking

Like social science research, in user centered design, we look to test hypotheses about our users. Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative approach aimed at validating or refuting hypotheses. This creative problem-solving process consists of five steps. Starting with learning the user’s needs, we look to uncover the problem, create solutions, design prototypes, and test to see if it all works. If it doesn’t, we iterate and try again. It’s uncommon to get it right the first time and this allows us to learn more along the way.

Empathize

Learn the user's needs

Define

Identify the problem

Ideate

Brainstorm solutions

Prototype

Design viable solution

Test

Validate your solution

start with empathy

Empathy is an integral part of user centered design and building it is the first step in design thinking. To help, we create personas, which are data informed representations of prototypical users. Personas help move teams away from self-referential thinking and refocus design decisions on the user’s wants and needs. Depending on your project, you may have 2-3 personas to represent different subsets of users. Personas can be iterative, and as you learn more about your users, you can update these with new data.

Who is this for?

In the social sciences, we refer to the research literature to help us define and ideate solutions. For example, could the solution be an app, website, or text message delivered? As novel as our solutions might be, one thing we must remember is that we are not our users, and at times, we may be overcomplicating things. The surest way to understand what users need and want is to ask them. 

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Test early, test often


The message of ‘test early, test often’ in design thinking cannot be underscored. After all, user centered design provides us with a unique opportunity to work collaboratively with the users throughout product development. When testing, users should not be starting with the final product, but rather low to medium fidelity prototypes to build up.

Pro-tip: Not everyone is a designer – this is where you can hire people to design the visual elements of your products (and what a difference it makes).

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Animated GIF of test screens for content design

my current studies

I have three active studies where I’m incorporating user centered design as part of intervention development. 

In my PI funded work, I’m developing and testing sex positive interventions for adolescents and young women. We start our process by developing personas to help the team understand our users and their motivations for joining the study.

What did users think?

We’ve learned a lot from our users. While our content mostly hit the mark, there were several areas in need of improvement. Our users helped us understand what could be changed and why so that it would be more relevant to their lives.

At the end of each user interview, participants were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with the following statements. Here’s what they said:

I learned something new
Agree 89%
The materials I read were easy to understand
Agree 89%
The materials I read were non-judgmental
Agree 89%
The materials I read would be useful for me
Agree 95%
The materials I read would be useful for women my age
Agree 95%

REPRESENTATIVE QUOTES​

When asked if there was anything we missed, this is what participants told us:

I think everything was covered very well, I am excited to see where the year study is in 5 years! thank you for allowing me to help!
Content Development Participant
Really cool work you guys are doing. Thanks for letting me be a part of it! 🙂
Content Development Participant
There was not anything that I felt was left uncovered. I think the information is presented in a very digestible and nonjudgemental way and we were able to talk through all of the information that I would add or rephrase. Thank you for doing this!
Content Development Participant
I think it was all clear and will be very helpful for women especially in demographics where sex education isn't provided.
Content Development Participant
I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was enlightening.
Content Development Participant

Key Takeaways

  • User centered design is an iterative approach to address user’s experiences when interacting with a product. 
  • Design thinking consists of five steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
  • Personas are key to building empathy for the users. Remember, you are not the user. 
  • Testing early and often is key to the success of your product. 

Need Consultation?

Contact me! Let’s design research studies that best meet the needs of the target population that will use your products.

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