In the world of product and service development, two approaches often dominate discussions: Design thinking and customer/User-centered design (UCD). However, they are equally interested in improving the usability of the interface, although they go through quite different processes to get there.
Design thinking methodology is the process or approach used in the development of products or services that focus more on the users. Design thinking is all about creativity! In other words, Design Thinking is creativity in-depth the mentioned concept can be described as a creative journey. As such, it fosters cross-functional teamwork and underscores the comprehensiveness of problem solutions’ contexts. This starts with the orientation that places you in the user’s position to discover the gaps and problems that need solving. This empathy-based phase defines the stage to establish the problem, brainstorm, and even design the model.
It typically consists of the following stages:
Empathize: This stage focuses on gaining an understanding of all aspects of the users, including their needs, feelings, and motivation. This often entails monitoring and/or interacting with users to gather extensive information about their views. When empathizing with the user, it becomes easier to frame the problem from the user’s perspective.
Define: Next to which insights have been collected is the formulation of the problem statement. This involves integrating the information gathered in the empathize stage and more specifically and coherently defining the user’s requirements and issues. It assists in defining the problem in such a manner that it allows for constructive thinking of the problem-solving techniques.
Ideate: This stage is in a way about idea generation and coming up with as many ideas as possible. IDEAS is used by designers and team members so that they can freely bring up proposals for resolving issues without criticism. The objective is to stimulate creative thinking.
Prototype: In this one, the concept developed in the ideation stage is brought into reality in the form of a physical or digital sample. These other prototypes can be in different formats, ranging from rough drawings to fully functional models. Prototyping is a cheap and swift means of testing concepts to determine what will be effective or not.
Test: Real users are used in the testing of prototypes to get their feedback. This step aids in fine-tuning the discovered ideas and proposing corrections for the final solution, which meets the end user’s expectations.
Design thinking is an iterative process therefore after testing the obtained data applies to redesigning and improving on the prototypes and concepts being developed. The process may go through any of the preceding stages at any time depending on the circumstances for review.
A clear definition of user-centered design will show more focus on creating products that are tailored to the needs of the user. UCD is a cyclical process in which designers always consider users as they work through the design process. This approach guarantees the user interface as the final product is easy to use, efficient, and user-centered.
The user-centered design process;
Generally speaking, the user-centered design process is made up of the following phases:
The first step for implementing this model is discovering accurate information about end-users by using research methods including interviews, surveys, observation, and analytics. The purpose is to identify motivations, activities, challenges, and objectives from the users’ perspective.
During this phase, substantial information collected from the user research studies is compiled, elaborated, and made finer to come out with design specifications based on users’ needs. This can be in the form of defined objectives and aims for the product to meet or in the user’s experience, the desired performance characteristics to exhibit. Sticking to the principles of user-centered design guarantees that these requirements will meet users’ needs as much as possible.
Designers come up with the basic ideas and preliminary designing of the model following the given stipulations. Such designs are refined from the user and stakeholders’ feedback so that they can properly serve users. In this phase, sketching, wireframing, and creation of interactive prototypes, which all generally adhere to principles of user-centric design are often incorporated.
This phase involves the transformation of the final design into a functional product. The development team members implement the product based on a given design, in most cases, developers work hand in hand with designers to translate the ideas with emphasis on the user’s needs and wants. Such an endeavor forms a central component of the user-centered design paradigm.
The last step of the process is testing, where the end product is scrutinized and assessed to meet users’ needs and requirements. This involves using usability testing, A/B testing, and feedback collection to determine if the site has any flaws that need to be rectified. The user-centered design concept also includes evaluation and iteration throughout the developmental phases.
While both methodologies are user-centric, they differ in focus and application:
Focus: UCD is a design approach that focuses mainly on the user side, UCD often represents usability and user satisfaction. Moreover, it is crucial to mention, that Design Thinking includes a wider context of the activity, combining the users’ needs with the technical and the business imperatives.
Process Timing: It is widely used throughout the product development process from the idea to the post-launch refining. Design thinking is fundamentally used at the conceptual stage to identify issues and create new solutions.
Feedback Mechanism: Although UCD relies on user feedback in making design decisions, Design Thinking on the other hand is a more experimental approach in which assumptions are challenged and a product is developed through the creation of prototypes and their testing.
Despite their differences, UCD and Design Thinking share several core principles:
User-Centric Approach: Thus, while focusing on a qualitative strategy, both strategies emphasize a user-centered approach.
Iterative Process: It is important to notice that both these approaches contain feedback loops that enable the improvement of the design solutions throughout the iteration processes.
Collaboration: Both keep designers, users, and relevant stakeholders engaged in continual co-creation of the product in a bid to deliver on the users’ expectations and business goals.
In conclusion, User-Centered Design and Design Thinking are both methodologies that help in designing good and user-friendly products. UCD is implemented in areas where there is a need to address problems or create solutions for which comprehensiveness and detailed focus on the user are necessary, while Design Thinking is best used in the cases of the need to solve intricate multifaceted problems and produce innovative and creative approaches. Awareness of distinctions between various methods helps designers and organizations use the most appropriate strategy for the given project and objectives.