Improving quality through user-centered design

The software interface — whether graphical, command-oriented, menu-driven, or in the form of subroutine calls — shapes the user’s perception of what software can do. It also establishes upper bounds on software learnability and usability. Numerical software interfaces typically are based on the designer’s understhow the software should be used. That is a poor foundation for usability, since the features that are “instinctively right” from the developrogrammers find most objectionable or most difficult to learn. This paper discusses how numerby involving users more actively in design, a process known as user-centered design (UCD). While UCD requires extra organization and effort, it results in much higher levels of usability and can actually reduce software costs. This is true not just for graphical user interfaces, but for all software interfaces. Examples show how UCD improved the usability of a subroutine library, a command language, and an invocation interface.

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