October 18-19, 2002
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, U.S.A

Motivation/Rationale for User-Centered Design

Draft Outline

• Motivation/rationale for user-centered design?
  • John Rheinfrank
  • Shelley Evenson
• What does user-centered mean?
  • Definitions
• Conventional approaches -- make the user adapt.
  • Adding ramps to old buildings
• From a world where people must adapt...
  • Informed by constraints
  • Standards for accessibility
  • Limitations in the "artifacts" define what it means to be disabled

  (Dumb objects, smart people)

• Role of conventions
  • Jakob Nielsen
  • Better by Donald Norman
• To multiple adaptive worlds
  • Adapting to people and their needs
  • Honoring abilities

  (Smart objects, smarter people)

• The building blocks of adaptive worlds
  • John Rheinfrank -- diagram
• How do you design in this context?

  User-centered still, but now you're creating:
  flexible platforms of resources...
  that are aware of the situations or context...
  and matched to people's abilities and capabilities.

  The result is "experience fit."

• 10 themes that can help drive design
  Things that designers naturally do are a good fit for this.
  (Demandments -- Kelly Mooney's book)
  1. Let me do things
     As I move through the experience, let me do things that change the resulting display in a way that feels as though it has been designed for me personally, in my context. Move beyond mere viewing.
  2. Let me win
     Reward me every time I accomplish something. Make the experience transparent so that the structure, operation and purpose of the experience is comprehensible and valued.
  3. Push me
     Help me reveal my potential; don't let me "get by." Help me visualize what I want to accomplish, so I can plan what I want to do next.
  4. Help me learn
     Combine doing with understanding. Let us learn from each other...and from the web of connection.
  5. Sense and respond
     Let me customize while you dynamically personalize for me. Make me feel like the artifact is alive and aware of my needs. Think of responsiveness by time, format, form and structure and quality of response.
  6. Orienteer
     Give me a journey that I can take and tasks that I can do. Don't steer, just give me a map to keep me located. Show me what and who's interested so I can direct my participation effectively.
  Outfit me
  Deliver new capabilities and make it easy for this to become a part of my life while skilling me.
  7. Connect me
     Help me make connections with the subject matter, or across destinations, or with other people.
  8. Immerse me
     Plunge me into the experience in a way that makes me even less (or even un-) aware of the place or setting that I've come from.
  9. Make waves
     Engage me in co-discovery and co-creation and transform my life, my work, my business.

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