User-centered design and the “vision thing”

business T The Paradox of " Vision " User-centered design (UCD) offers a comprehensive vision of an alternative design process, involving different activities, practices, and methodologies appropriate for different phases of system development. In our experience, despite the growing awareness of such things as the importance of good user interface (UI) design, usability, and UCD practices, it is extremely rare that companies adopt a fully integrated UCD approach in one grand strategic shift. Rather, companies tend to adopt UCD practices and methods in stages or adopt a particular method or practice only when a complex set of factors align to create readiness. Usually, a company's motivation results from a combination of painful lessons and glimpses of possible solutions. Furthermore, it is difficult to tell in advance whether a methodology adopted by a particular development team will be a one-time