UCD

User Centered Design is the philosophy that designers should empathize with the user, put the user in the center of the process and focus on them.

Why it matters

UCD is less a method than a discipline of humility: the reminder that you are not the user, and neither is your CEO. Its rituals — research before pixels, testing before shipping — exist to interrupt the natural drift toward designing for yourself. The tell that it has lapsed is always the same sentence in a meeting: 'users will figure it out.'

Related terms

Human Centered Design
User-Centric Design

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