Antonio Wells. Web & Multimedia Designer

Yesterday evening I attended a monthly new user group started to discuss and help bridge the gap between Designers and Developers. The topics were about User Experience and User Interface Design, here’s the summary…

Speakers: David Charney, Creative Director of Illumen Group and Jessica Boggs, Creative Director or AlphaZeta Inc.

User Group: CD2UG (Chicago Designers & Developers User Group)

Discussion: In the discussion we gathered insight from 2 creative directors and their firms’ process of balancing clients’ users in the center of the design process. They spend time learning about their clients’ audience, brand, messaging, and goals in order to reach a deliverable within budget.

User centered design has some initial resistance because some clients either feels it’s a waste money, don’t have the time, or don’t understand it. The speakers further explained how it could benefit clients:

• Discovery. User Centered Design typically is a 3-6 week process. During this process you sometimes find it uncovers ideas clients  may want to try (and sometimes find extra budget for). It also layouts foundation for scope documentation.
• Education.This process allows you to educate the client on the creative process and ensure all possibilities within budget and scope are explored.
• Communication. Frequent updates with the clients establishes a stronger relationship and reduces misunderstandings.
• Niche. This becomes a niche to market a unique service of empathy especially to clients with the budget to do so.

In conclusion, User Centered Design is a process that focuses on the clients’ audience, the expectations and limitations of a user interface given special attention to each step of the design process.