User-Centered Design

Chapter 10. You’re Never Finished

“Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you’re alive, it isn’t.”

—Richard Bach

My hope is that our time together has helped you understand the value of putting users in the center of your development process. I realize user-centered design is not easy and requires a great deal of investment on your part. However, I strongly believe that it’s worth the investment.

When you begin to work in step with users, you save yourself valuable time by heading in the right direction. I don’t know about you, but I hate having to rewrite code or throw away an hour’s worth of work. I feel silly when I put my application in front of the user and realize I’ve missed something obvious, which renders the application unusable. It only takes of few situations like these to make you realize that you can’t build applications without users’ help.

However, I’m not going to suggest that the user-centered design process is the quickest methodology for getting your application out the door. You’ll still make mistakes, even when users tell you exactly what they need. Guess what? Users change their minds all the time! They ask for one thing, see it, and decide they want something else.

This is why it’s important to not only listen to their needs, but also observe them to get a holistic view of the problem space.

With all that said, one of the most important aspects of user-centered design is the willingness to get it right. You have to be willing to ...