WHAT IS USER-

CENTERED
DESIGN?
Dr. Will Kurlinkus
INTRODUCTIONS:
NAME, AREA OF
RESEARCH,
HOBBY/INTEREST
About the Undergraduate Course So Far

■ User-Centered from the start: readers have goals that are docs help them achieve.
■ Each Unit Includes:
– Assignment Sheet and Rubric (breakdown on day 1 of unit)
– Lectures Almost Every Day: Primary Source of Information
1. clear points of instructions: a good resume bullet does xyz
2. illustrations of those points: here’s how we transform a bad bullet to a good one
3. activities to activate those points (and build to assignment): now you write a good bullet for your own experience
and we’ll critique
– Readings: Secondary Source of Information (for modal redundancy and to illustrate your knowledge more than
anything)—a textbook reading and a more informal up-do-date reading.
– Peer Review
– Common Error Sheet
– Knowledge Transfer Statement: some kind of statement that illustrates the value of what the unit taught beyond
the class. What you’ve experienced, what alumni have told you about, what your students can tell you about,
something from an expert in STEM talking about your toic
HOW DO WE GRADE AND
COMMENT ON STUDENT
PAPERS?
What Are Your Opinions?
Technical Writing Grading Ethic

1. We grade based on what we teach—comments should come straight from the

power points.
2. We comment more strictly than we grade numerically—we comment and grade
generously.
3. We use rubrics and structured/stepped multi-part assignments. We try our hardest
to assign some parts of these to do in class and for homework.
4. Grades should be turned back within a 2-week range
GRADE COVER
LETTERS
WHAT ARE
GENUINE
PLEASURE
POINTS?
 Resolving Problems
in the World through
Design
“There is the capitalist approach
(make it bigger), the technocratic one
(make it better), the ‘revolutionary’
solution (portray the problem as an
example of an exploitative system)
and the pre-industrial romantic fallacy
(don’t use it; maybe it will go away by
itself.) We propose a fifth alternative
response: Let’s invent a different
answer” (27).
—Victor Papanek & James
Hennessey

Designs are underdetermined by god terms like “efficiency,” “cost,” “innovation.”

There are innumerous equally efficient, cost-effective, and innovative options.
What is design?
■ Design: the act of transforming the world from its current state
into a desired one.
■ Designer-centered design: creating something with the
designer’s expertise in mind. Beautiful architecture and art. (see
the juicy salif)
■ User-centered design: creating something by thinking carefully
about and observing how users (though sometimes stereotypical
users) use a product. Use is the goal.
■ Participatory/co-design: collaborating directly with users, co-
creating with them.
■ Human-centered design: thinking and learning about the
messiness of users—similar to user-centered design but a better
life is the goal. Human-centered design is also often synonymous
with the process of design thinking.
■ Design Activism: “Creating a counter-narrative aimed at
generating and balancing positive social, institutional,
environmental and/or economic change” (Alastair Fuad-Luke).
Thinking designing for disability, designing for aging, designing for
gender equity.
DESIGNER
CENTRIC
DESIGN
w would you redesign?
USER-CENTERED DESIGN
■ Human error: “It is time to reverse the situation: to cast the
blame upon the machines and their design. It is the machine
and its design that are at fault. It is the duty of machines and
those who design them to understand people. It is not our
duty to understand the arbitrary, meaningless dictates of
machines” (6)
■ “we were designing things for people, so we needed to
understand both technology and people”
■ Affordances: designs that indicate how they work (think
digital links and buttons)
■ Signifier: a means of communicating the presence of an
affordance (see communication design)
■ “Human-centered design is a design philosophy. It means
starting with a good understanding of people and the needs
that the design is intended to meet. This understanding
comes about primarily through observation, for people
themselves are often un- aware of their true needs, even
unaware of the difficulties they are encountering. “
HUMAN-
CENTERED
DESIGN
METIS MAKES
A HOUSE A
HOME

DESIRE LINES,
USER
INNOVATIONS
UX Writing
■ UX Writing: UX Writers write UI text, plus any other text
needed to support the user as they interact with, or
experience, a product.
■ Lean forward (readers looking for specific information to do
specific tasks) vs. Lean back media (sitting back and
enjoying media: a movie)
■ “Don’t Make Me Think”: a good software program or
website should let users accomplish their intended tasks
as easily and directly as possible (Steve Krug).
■ Dual streams approach to writing (scannability): Designing
documents, apps, and texts to be read at two levels: first for
scanners and second for detail-oriented readers.
■ Satisficing (Herbert Simon): Users will choose whatever the
first option/path of interaction seems likely, even if it’s not
the best choice.
■ Modal Redundancy: Using a combination of headers,
images, bullets, etc. to say the same thing. Considering what
media/mode do users jump to first and giving enough of the
story there.
Scannability: headings
(sans serif); numbers;
numerous vectors; bullet
points
■ Create a visual
hierarchy using fonts,
italics, bullets, and
tabs.
■ 2 fonts, 2 colors, 2
sizes—max
■ Think in terms of two
or three key vectors:
Job titles, locations,
dates, employer, etc.
DESIGNS ARE ALWAYS
ARGUMENTS ABOUT HOW WE
SHOULD SEE, KNOW, AND
UNDERSTAND THE WORLD.
What
style of
design is
this?
HOW WOULD YOU REDESIGN THE
AIR TRAVEL EXPERIENCE?

WHY? WHAT KEY IDEAS FROM

OUR READINGS & LECTURE
MIGHT COME INTO PLAY?
DESIGN PROBLEM
OR INNOVATION
SCAVENGER HUNT:
10 MINUTES