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| 3/23/2005 | | | What Is User-Centered Methodology and How Will It Grow My Business? | |
Successful websites don’t just happen. They are carefully sculpted with precise attention to user-centered design principles throughout the development process.
User-Centered Methodology is a structured approach to maximizing a site’s function by emphasizing primary focus on the site’s user. The approach focuses the designer on the question: Who will use this site and how?
User-Centered Methodology in design provides a broad range of businesses with numerous critical advantages. Through easy-to-use websites created specifically for the user, UCM designed sites increase customer satisfaction, and prominently and quickly display successes to ultimately increase revenue.
The following key principles of UCM can guide website development to complement business strategies and create a first class end user experience:
Commit to understanding the user
Designers must first determine the website’s audience, or the clientele which will be utilizing the site, and then outline the primary objectives of the client. The site content can then be tailored to best suit the needs of the end user through in-depth market research of the client. This research is the key factor in deciding which content will most benefit the end user.
Market research additionally guides the design by indicating how the user will actually use the site. For example, if research shows that the management personnel of a laboratory facility base their decision of which architecture firm to hire upon the firm’s experience in laboratory projects, the architecture firm’s site should exude a confident reputation of experience in laboratory projects.
Plan and organize strategically
An in-depth review of your customer’s previous marketing strategies, a marketing audit, identifies strengths and weaknesses to determine the greatest untapped opportunities available to the project.
By analyzing the organizational mission, objectives, and goals of the company for whom you are designing the website, the site is best positioned to portray your client’s reputation and expertise to the end user.
Early strategy formulation gives your project a solid direction and objective to guide it throughout adjustments and revisions depending upon user needs. This strategy should target market expansion, competitive positioning, and sustainable competitive advantages that will grow as the user’s needs grow.
Language is vital
The site must speak directly to the user, thus it should speak in the same language of the client. Initial market research will determine what key words, phrases, and vocabulary are most pertinent to the end user of the site. Including these specific trigger words will also optimize search engine hits.
Site navigation must facilitate user control
The site must be clear, organized, and straightforward. For instance, site design that includes an overhead navigation bar allows the user to jump to each section of the site from whichever section he or she is currently viewing. Not only does this make visiting the site a pleasant experience, but an easy one that can be repeated as much as necessary or desired. Keep in mind, the more clients visit a site, the more they get to know about the company!
Assess the company's environment, internal and external.
Target marketing, or tailoring the site to the end user, allows you to provide exactly what the user is looking for, and ensures a first-class user experience.
Market segmentation selects the groups of users who will be most receptive to the site through methods that consider demographics, psychographic variables, and product use patterns, among others.
Once the proper segment has been determined, market targeting evaluates each market segment's attractiveness, and selects one or more of the market segments to enter that will optimize user satisfaction with the site.
Market positioning creates an image of the firm you are representing with UCM design, and highlights the firm’s attributes in comparison to competition.
Manage by continual user observation
User-Centered Methodology continues throughout the site’s daily use by gathering user feedback on the site on various topics ranging from ease of navigation to content usability. With UCM, websites are more capable than ever of adjusting to meet the growing and changing needs of the client, and the guidelines of UCM will provide sustainable business solutions within design-savvy websites.
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