Fundamentals of User-Centered Design
A Practical Approach

There has been some solid work done in the area of User-Centered Design (UCD) over the last few years. What?s been missing is an in-depth, comprehensive textbook that connects UCD to usability and User Experience (UX) principles and practices. This new textbook discusses a theoretical framework in relation to other design theories. It provides a repeatable, practical process for implementation, offering numerous examples, methods, and case studies for support, and it emphasizes best practices in specific environments, including mobile and web applications, print products, as well as hardware.

Introduction to User-Centered Design; Origins; UCD Principles; Research Users; Assess the Situation; Balance and Filter Design Features; Build Out an Operative Image; Test the Design; RIDE (Report, Iterate, Deploy, Evaluate); International UCD; Hardware UCD; Print UCD; Mobile UCD; UCD Teams; UCD Tools and Technologies; Index

Dr. Brian Still has more than 15 years of industry experience, working in both the private and governmental sectors, as a technology developer, manager, and evaluator. He has directed the TTU Usability Research Lab since 2006, managing a number of user experience (UX) design and testing projects for a wide range of clients, and generating a number of publications, including a highly respected collection, Usability of Complex Systems: Evaluation of User Interaction, edited with Michael Albers and published by CRC Press in 2011. In the same year Dr. Still spun off a startup from TTU, Grinbath (now called EyeGuide), based around eye tracking technology he helped invent and patent. For the last 4 years EyeGuide has made (drawing on sound UX design principles) three different eye tracking research and control systems, selling them to clients around the world.

Dr. Kate Crane is an assistant professor of technical communication at Eastern Washington University. Her current research focuses on document modality and usability, but her larger interests include usability testing, eye-tracking methodology, and user-centered design (UCD). In addition to her own research, she has worked on UCD and usability projects for EyeGuide and the University of North Texas Libraries’ Portal to Texas History. Dr. Crane previously served as the assistant director of the Usability Research Lab at Texas Tech University, where she earned her PhD in technical communication and rhetoric.