Developing a User-Centered Software Design Approach Self-Study Course

Developing a User-Centered Software Design Approach will identify the principles and benefits of a user-centered design and help to determine a practical approach to promoting user-centered design methodology in organizations
Audience
Course Topics Introducing User-Centered Design

• Identify the goals of usability and User-Centered Design
• Identify the main trends in the evolution of human-computer interaction and user interface design, and the main challenges facing User-Centered Design
• Identify the main aspects of a UCD culture and the criteria for success in its development in an organization
• Determine why an organization should adopt a User-Centered Design culture and how it can be achieved, given a scenario
• Recognize User-Centered Design principles and best practices
• Identify the business and usability factors of design, and the criteria for effective design
• Determine the guidelines and factors that affect design in a given scenario

Developing an Application Using User-Centered Design

• Distinguish between approaches to software design and identify the main steps in usability testing in a given scenario
• Identify the elements of the user research plan and task analysis
• Define users, user requirements, and the interaction framework
• Conduct user research
• Identify good user interface design and navigation techniques
• Recognize user interaction elements that demonstrate best practice in design
• Identify best practices for notification messages and online help design
• Assess how to improve the visual interface design for an application in a given scenario

The Iterative Process in User-Centered Design

• Determine recommendations for usability testing
• Organize a focus group
• Design a survey
• Design a usability test and a survey, and organize a focus group
• Analyze the results of a usability test, focus group, and survey
• Use the iterative development model for product design
• Analyze the results of user research and apply the iterative development model to improve product design

Practical Examples of User-Centered Design

• Identify good GUI design techniques for Windows applications
• Apply user-centered design best practices to GUI interface layout and features
• Identify good web site design techniques
• Design a user-centered web site

Course Objectives

• Identify the principles and benefits of user_centered design and determine a practical approach to promoting user-centered design methodology in organizations
• Conduct user research and design effective user interface and interaction elements
• Design usability tests and surveys, organize focus groups, and analyze feedback to implement findings for improving product design
• To design user-centered Windows applications and web sites