User-centered Design

The User-Centered Design (UCD) approach started to develop in the late 1970s in the USA. The aim of this approach was to design with a better understanding of the range of users and their needs (Karat and Karat 2003). Within the UCD approach, a representation of the users’ interests in design is required to ensure the development of efficient and usable systems. In this approach, it is not predetermined that users should be actively involved, instead they can be represented by usability experts or by theories and models of user behavior (Bekker and Long 2000). Hence, how the users are involved in the systems design process is fairly open. The UCD area has a pragmatic rationale (Bekker and Long 2000) and as such it has not captured the necessary academic training, according to Karat and Karat (2003). Hence, the challenge within this area is to build up an understanding of how and when different approaches for user involvement could, and should, be used (Karat and Karat 2003).