User Centred Design In recognition of some of the limitations of customer/specialist design some workers in the field advocate an approach that is more user centred E.g. Mumford Participative Design In this approach users:- Plan the organisational structures within which they will work Plan the jobs they will do Specify the technical system they will require to support these activities and structures With this approach users are given the support of organisational specialists and technical specialists to provide the technical system that is required

User Centred Design Another user- led strategy is the 'end-user development' approach Individuals or a group develop their own applications to suit their requirements These participative approaches do ensure that there is a strong commitment on the part of the users They are highly motivated to ensure that the system will work Will strive to overcome weakness' in the design

Issues with UCD approaches However there are some problems with this approach:- How do you involve all users when the system is large? How do you ensure that the users will have the required knowledge and skills to participate effectively? How do different user groups resolve conflict of interest with regards to the design of the system?

Problem 1 Large Systems? Establish different opportunities for participation People are only involved when they have knowledge to contribute or have a direct stake in the outcome Broad strategic technical or organisational design issues are left to the appropriate user reps who are working with the technical specialists

Problem 2 Skills & Knowledge? Is partly overcome if only involving users when they have the knowledge Provide user reps with time to acquire the knowledge Provide training to help them develop the skills to participate effectively

Problem 3 Resolving Conflict? Project teams must be given clear terms of reference and to realise that there will often need to be a compromise between the technical user and organisational requirements A proper project structure is required to manage these conflicts and so ensure that decisions can be made

A typical Project Structure (Eason) Board of Directors Management Meetings Project Steering Group Senior Management Senior Tech specialists User Reps Design Team Tech Specialists User Reps Local Design Team All relevant users Technical support

General Principles User Centred Design Some principles for involving users in the design Focus on the users their needs and capabilities early in the development process Make users and user issues central to the design process Identify users and their characteristics Gather information about the users tasks and the task environment

UCD Principles (Cont) Conduct a Task Analysis to obtain task knowledge at both the micro and macro levels Micro level decomposes specific tasks into hierarchical structures and finally into small cognitive units Macro level is where the whole system is analysed in terms of organisational social and environmental aspects Ensure testing and evaluation with users is completed early to ensure that the system is being designed to meet their needs Design iteratively - design - test - redesign - System evolves and is tailored and refined to meet user needs with each iteration