This course will be retired on August 31, 2018. We recommend "Introduction to Product Design" for up-to-date content.

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The Foundation of UX

2:38 with Lis Hubert

Now that we’ve learned a bit of background on UX and its brief history, let’s build forth starting with understanding the foundation of UX: User Centered Design.

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    Now that we've learned a bit of background on UX, and

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    it's brief history, and we know that to be a UX

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    designer, you can't just understand how to do UX, but instead

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    must first understand why we do UX, and what UX is.

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    Let's build forth starting with understanding

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    the foundation of UX, user center design.

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    User centered design known in short as UCD

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    has been around in some form since the 1970s.

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    The basic premise of UCD is that it is a process in which the needs, wants and

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    limitations of end-users of a product are given

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    extensive attention at each stage of the design process.

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    UCD answers questions about users and their tasks and goals

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    then uses the findings to make decisions about development and design.

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    UCD of a website, for example, seeks to answer the following questions.

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    Who are the users of the product or service?

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    What are the users' tasks and goals?

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    What are the users' experience levels with the product and products like it?

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    What functions do the users need from the product?

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    What information might the users need and in what form do they need it?

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    How do users think the product should work?

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    After answering these questions, we would use the

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    answers to inspire product design and drive product development.

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    Note, that UCD is different than participatory design, where

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    we attempt to include all stakeholders in the process.

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    I mentioned this as these two types of

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    design, user centered and participatory are often confused.

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    UCD focuses a great deal on the persona.

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    The persona.

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    You'll hear this term a lot in this UX industry.

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    Here, I am using the term generically to

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    mean a behavioral representation of a user type.

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    However, you'll also hear the term persona used to

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    indicate a UX deliverable that looks much like this.

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    For some reason, many UXers seem to be obsessed with creating personnas.

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    And although they are a helpful tool, I want you to

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    keep in mind that they are only a tool that you may

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    use on your journey through UXdom and they are not the

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    end all, be all of amazing UX design work, just a tool.

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    UCD focuses a great deal on the persona or behavioral representation of the user.

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    As well as the use of scenario based design where the actor, or

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    persona, is taken through different stories

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    to ensure the product meets their needs.

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    All of this is to ensure that we,

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    the people building the product, have empathy for, as

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    well as include and give attention to, are

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    users throughout the entirety of product and service creation.

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    In later stages of this course, we'll talk about the UCD

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    process as it has been specifically utilized in the field of UX.

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    Knowing this will allow us to design an experience with the user in mind.

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