Most of us, from any kind product development field - software, web, mobile; being developers, feels that we know a lot about the “end-user” who is going to actually use the final product. But, such a perception of end-user is NOT ‘right’.
Rather, we may know really less when it comes to understanding the user before we start developing the product for a specific user group or TG. Websites / Products / Software developed without understanding the ‘end-user & their needs along with business goals’ will make less sense & the final product may not “usable" & will not achieve the business goals set by the stakeholders.
To minimize the failure & increase the product usability, we need to understand the ‘user group’, which can be done by using “User-Centered Analysis” (UCA) methods.
User-Centered Analysis is NOT a part of the ‘product development life cycle' or 'SDLC‘. It’s even before we get into the actual product development / detailed design & implementation.
UCA gives us a powerful understanding of the end-users' mental model'. These methods provides you a rich information, insights on “how a user will use your website or application“. This, if understood in a right manner, will definitely help you to build an application/ website that user will really find “easy-to-use”.
User-Centered Analysis (UCA) is a set of proven and objective data-gathering and analysis techniques, which enables you to understand the ‘end-user and his mental model‘ about your website / application.
We will discuss some of these methods in the coming posts. Do let me know if you have any suggestions. Provide your comments, if possible.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
