User-centered Design (UCD) is a framework which places the user at the center of the design and development process. The focus is on who will use the product or service and the environments they will use it in.

UCD is the whole user experience and the goal is to improve human well-being by creating products and services that are useful, usable, and accessible.

The phases of User-Centered Design are:

• Discovery
• Concepting
• Prototyping and User Testing

UCD is also an iterative process. UX designers are often revisiting earlier steps in the design process based on feedback from stakeholders (especially users).

Discovery

During the Discovery phase designers identify users of of the product, the conditions they’ll use it under, any business requirements the company has, and the user needs of the product.

•  Competitive Analysis: Before a designer does anything else, they need to understand the competitors to decide how the software will compete.
• Audience Definition: Making informed design decisions is impossible without first identifying the users of the design.
• User Scenarios: Designers then create scenarios in which potential users will need the software to accomplish a goal. This is where designers can identify features and functions crucial to the success of the app.
• Content Survey: Surveys are a great way to learn about users and focus on functions that might address their needs.

Concepting

During the Concepting phase designers create design solutions to address both business and user needs. This is where the designer crafts wireframes, user flows, mockups, and final designs.

• Process Flows: This is where a designer gets into the specific paths a user can take within your software, typically via user stories and flow charts.
• Sitemap: This is a diagram that shows the navigation layout of a particular website or app. A sitemap details all of the pages contained within a website or app, showing how they’re connected together and their corresponding hierarchy.
• Wireframes: Wireframes help designers quickly lay out their designs.
• Design: With wireframes and user flows in hand, designers create a mockup of the actual design.

Prototyping and User Testing

During the Prototyping and User Testing phase, designers determine if the design provides the desired user experience by testing a prototype with actual users.

• Prototyping: Prototypes allows designers to test the functionality of the design against actual users.
• User Testing: In this phase, designers present the finalized designs and/or prototypes to actual users and analyze the results. Where are users getting stuck? What features are users missing? This is a chance to see where the current design can be improved.
• Review: Designers take a step back and analyze everything they’ve learned. By this point, there should be concrete data as to what was and wasn’t effective in the design of the app.
• Approval: This is the final phase, which means it’s time to make the ultimate decision about what to keep and what to get rid of. If something works, it makes its way into the development phase and, ultimately, into the product. If something doesn’t work, designers start the process over again and attempt to improve it based on the findings.

Project Example