IA and User-centered Design

Abstract

Information architects (IAs) are helping to create a “user-centered” future, where user goals and needs serve as the guidelines for design and development. User-centered design (UCD) is the most prevailing methodology for information architecture design. Although some might call it “customer-center design” (Duyne et al., 2002) or “contextual design” (Beyer and Holtzblatt, 1997), the ideas are the same; the “user” should be the center of focus during the whole design process. IAs, and everyone building an information space, must help identify user needs and balance them with business and technical concerns, in order to improve usability and maximize the usefulness of an information space (Figure 3.1). In this chapter, the UCD process for information architecture is introduced.