User-Centered App Design: User Involvement Through the Design Process

“Test early, test often.” John D. McGrecor

Do you remember the hierarchy of needs proposed by Abraham Maslow? Just like in humans, mobile application designs go through different stages of growth too. These stages of growth are the user experience hierarchy of needs proposed by Stephen Anderson. The most basic needs start at the bottom of the pyramid and it is very difficult or even impossible to meet the higher needs without satisfying the basic. The basic need in the user experience pyramid is functionality. The highest need is meaningfulness. The chasm between usable and convenient is very hard to cross. To make your application convenient to use – that works “just like the user thinks” – you need to know exactly all user’s expectations and desires. In other words, you need User-Centered Design (UCD).

A basic question in the development process of a mobile application is how to find out what users really need. However, the elicitation of this kind of information from users is usually a challenging issue. Frequently, users have difficulties in articulating their needs. For this reason it is important to practice an interactive involvement of end-users during the whole process of app development and design – from concepting to finalizing.

Let’s look how does the scenario of UCD process look like:

It is important to make user testing on the early stages of application development. If we find out some problems during testing our application in the hybrid focus group or field test (we will come back to these testing methods later), sometimes it is necessary to repeat user testing to make sure these problems are resolved. Occasionally, it makes sense to organize second hybrid focus group, if during first one you discuss significant changes in the concept of your application and then decide to implement them. Similarly you may repeat field testing as much as it is needed to be sure that users are completely satisfied with the application design.

On the early stages of the developing process, UCD practices help us to understand:

1. What users want to do.

2. How they want to do it.

3. What we can do to help.

4. How we can do that.

Before applying any kind of user testing, mobile application development company should remember the golden rules of user involvement through the design process:

1. Know your audience. UCD relies on user involvement throughout the design process, leading to a solution that users will find useful and want to use. To achieve that, you first need to have a clear understanding of your target audience.

2. Know what you want to know. Make a homework – do a research, draw sketches, make some drafts of your app design concepts, determine what you need to clarify.

3. Dig into experiences. Do not request from the testing group of users out-of-the-box solutions. Your task is to scrupulously learn their experiences.

4. Co-create the deliverables. Try not to disturb or confuse the group of users, just help them when it is needed.

5. Observe the facts. Be critical and open-minded. It is essential to see the whole picture, not only what you want to see.