Vision-Centered vs. User-Centered Design | Developing User Interfaces for Microsoft Windows

To put everything together, let's compare a typical vision-centered design process to a typical user-centered design process. A typical user-centered design process looks something like the following:

Ask users what they want.

Throw together a prototype based on user input.

Have users test the prototype.

Evaluate results with users and with the design team.

Determine what changes need to be made.

Repeat until done (possibly many times).

One could argue that the phrase "throw together" should be replaced with "carefully design." Admittedly, I used the phrase "throw together" to make the process sound hasty, but it isn't too far off the mark. Again, the basic concept behind user-centered design is that software developers don't know how to design software that satisfies user's goals, so such a process views careful design as a waste of time. In fact, the above process is often referred to as rapid prototyping, since more emphasis is placed on obtaining feedback quickly than on design. This is a highly iterative, feedback-driven process—made possible through rapid prototyping—that tries to discover what users really want.

TIP
Rapid prototyping and careful design are mutually exclusive design techniques.

User interfaces developed this way potentially have many desirable attributes. The user is very much in the center of the process. The user interface is subjected to plenty of user testing and user evaluation. But there are serious problems as well. The software isn't really designed by anyone. If the results are poor, users might be able to help identify the problems. But if the results are passable, but mediocre, user testing probably won't help much. Users often have trouble articulating problems and blame themselves for making mistakes or being confused. The success of this process depends upon users having skills and knowledge that they probably don't have.

I consider the following vision-centered design process to be a much better alternative:

Talk to users and understand their needs and goals.

Identify the critical user needs and goals.

Identify critical features to accomplish the critical user needs and goals.

Establish product goals and a product vision.

Incorporate the information into a design.

Review the design to make sure it achieves the goals and vision.

Present the design to users for feedback and carefully interpret the feedback. Use prototyping combined with user testing as necessary to solve specific problems.

Repeat until satisfied.

At their core, these two processes are similar in that satisfying the user is the primary objective of both. But while the ultimate goal is the same, the emphasis is completely different. In this process, the role of the user is significantly reduced. User input is used to determine the high-level requirements and to evaluate the results. All user feedback is carefully interpreted. The design team, not the user, is responsible for the actual design of the software. The design itself is focused on high-level issues, such as the product vision and critical features. The process doesn't depend upon creating prototypes and bothering users to make every design decision. Not every dialog box and not every icon is designed with direct feedback from the user. While obtaining good user feedback is desirable, the results of the process aren't completely dependent upon it.

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User-centered design shouldn't result in user-designed software.

While user interfaces are for users and user satisfaction is the ultimate measure of a good user interface, the fact is that users are not designers. You can't expect to go to your users with a blank sheet of paper and say, "Tell me what you want," and expect to come up with a well-designed system. Rather, it is your responsibility to design the user interface, not the user's. To properly design the user interface, you need to identify the program's target users and then talk to them to understand their needs and goals. You need to work with users, designers, marketers, and managers to establish a product vision. This vision will help you make good decisions about the product and its user interface. Lastly, you need to have the target users test your user interface, but you need to carefully interpret their feedback. Mindlessly implementing everything your users tell you isn't a recipe for success.