UCD is short for User-centered Design, and is an important part of developing a website. Quickly defined, UCD is designing a website that meets users needs. Are you building a website for you to use, or your users? When building a website, you should design with your target audience in mind.

It’s Not a Waste of Time and Money

As a business owner myself, I’ve learned to not spend money on unnecessary items, but I have also learned that sometimes you need to have a bigger budget before implementing something new. “Can’t I just build a website without doing all this testing?” Yes, you can. Will your site be effective? It might. Will you need to rebuild your site when you realize that the current version is the problem? Most likely. Will you rebuild your site doing it the right way the second time? You better, or you are just setting yourself up to fail again.

It’s not a waste of time or money if you do it the right way the first time. It’s the best way you can spend your time and money. Before you jump into building a website though you need to clearly define its purpose, similar to setting up a business plan. In building a site, while thinking UCD, here is a list of important things to consider.

Important Factors:
·    Sites primary objective
·    Who is the target audience and their web user skills
·    Potential tasks and goals of the user
·    How would the users expect the site to work
·    How easy will your site be for users

All of these items should be considered, plus any other additional items that you can think of when developing the site concept. The key here is “Who is this user?” and “How will they use my site?” Designing the UCD way is understanding your audience, working/testing with audience, and creating the best platform for your audience to succeed.

Where Do I Start?

Assuming you have clearly defined the important factors for your new site, knowing where to start on the design process could be the hardest part. Usability.gov has a great little flow char on just that, Visual Overview. Not all steps are required, but it does offer some great insight on what should be happening when developing a site while thinking UCD.

It’s all about designing with users in mind, then testing with users, and then finalizing with a site that you know users can benefit from. It’s what building websites is all about.