User-Centred Design Advantages And Disadvantages

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Advantages and disadvantages in end user involvement in design process and outcome
Intro
In this review I will be discussing what the advantage and disadvantages are of using user-centred design in the design process. I used 6 different articles to extract information from and a site to help back up some of the information. Some of the articles where about projects that had been done using user-centred design, theses helped tremendously as they discuss the issues that were raised but as well as how helpful the users were. In this review I will focus on four main components of user-centred design. The first one will be what guidelines would one use for user participation if one wants to be successful. The second one is how to integrate project management and work with UCD and this also covers the many mistakes companies and designers make which puts them at a disadvantage. The third one is about organization because when one works with outsider you need to be very well organized and many companies lack this. The fourth and last one is communication, this is the most important one as user-centred design is all about communication with the user.
What is User-centred design
User-centred design (UCD) is about the design process where the end-user has an influence of how the design comes out in the end. The design of everyday objects is not always user friendly and leaves customers irritated and unable to use the object, this is where user-centred design comes in (Travis 2009: 10). User-centred design can go two ways, it is either technology driven or user demand driven. When a project is technology driven this means that the technology and its possibilities is the focus of the project. User demand driven is when a project starts with...

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...o be organized and know what they are doing all the time. When a user feels uncomfortable or confused the feedback they give will not be as affective and this will put the company at a disadvantage.
There are so many advantages of using user-centred design throughout the design process and one can only benefits from it but to benefit its full potential the company needs to know what they doing. Industrial designer are designer who will benefit most from this process as they design everyday objects that people interact with and getting feedback from the user will ensure a successful product. Any feedback from users will benefit the product but the more feedback and involvement of the user the more chance of the product being successful. The involvement of users in the design process one way or another has been proven to develop more satisfying and usable designs.

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