User-centred design: for users or by users?

Abstract When ergonomists contribute to the design of products and services they aim to be user-centred. This paper explores two possible meanings of user-centredness; the ergonomist may use theories and findings about human behaviour to act for the user or may help the user to participate in design. Both approaches are well known in ergonomics and they can point in conflicting directions. This paper examines the rationale for the two approaches and presents the results of a survey, which found that the most successful strategy was to mix the two approaches. It offers a classification to support the identification of the appropriate approach to adopt in different situations. The paper proposes, for example, that ‘design by users’ is the appropriate strategy when significant value judgements have to be taken in a local or bespoke design setting. By contrast a ‘design for users’ approach is appropriate for the design of generic products. An additional approach ‘design for users with users’ is introduced for...