The big idea: User-centred design (UCD) involves potential users at all stages of the design process.
The words that matter: UCD pays particular attention to the needs of potential users. The words that matter are all stages. A survey at the start and a satisfaction score at the end is not UCD.
The five stages, drawn as a loop. Step through to see what the user does in each — not just what the designer does.
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What each stage is for
Research
Find out who will use the product, for what task, and where: observation, interviews, shadowing, focus groups. Established by going and looking, not by describing a user from a desk.
Concept
Generate early ideas that answer what the research found. Users react to rough concepts and sketches, and confirm which needs actually matter to them.
Design
Develop the chosen concept into models and prototypes. Users try early, cheap versions on the real task, and the failures are recorded.
Implementation
Finalise the design and prepare it for production. Users check the near-final product, so late problems are still caught before tooling.
Launch
Release the product and gather feedback from real use. That feedback is the research for the next version, which makes UCD a loop rather than a checklist.
Why it is a loop: Evaluating a design often changes your understanding of the users, not just the design. Discovering that nurses work one-handed sends you back to research, not just to the next prototype.
Two more ideas the papers use
Personas belong to research
A persona turns the research findings into one fictional user, so it is made at the research stage and then guides the concept.
Participatory design
Users and other stakeholders design with the team, for example residents and shopkeepers sketching a new high street in workshops.
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The guide asks for the advantages and disadvantages of UCD when designing for a diverse range of user needs and capabilities. Both halves are examinable, so learn both.
Advantages
- The product fits a diverse range of needs and capabilities, not just the designer's
- Expensive mistakes surface while they are still cheap to fix
- Fewer errors in use, so the product is safer and needs less support
- Decisions are evidence-based, so the team argues about data, not taste
Disadvantages
- Takes longer and costs more up front
- Users can be hard to recruit, especially specialist ones
- A poor sample lets a vocal minority pull the design away from the population
- Users cannot describe what does not exist yet, so early stages need care
The honest answer: UCD is slower and more expensive. The argument for it is that the alternative is finding out later, when the fix costs a production run rather than an afternoon.
How this is tested — explaining the five stages of UCD and weighing its advantages against its costs. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 — multiple choice
- Identify which UCD stage a described activity belongs to.
- Pick a genuine disadvantage of UCD rather than a generic one.
Paper 2 — analysing a product
- Explain the five stages in the context of a named product.
- Evaluate whether a company should use UCD for a given product.
The trap: Describing the stages as a straight line that ends at launch. Feedback after launch starts the research for the next version, and a failed prototype can send you back to research, not just to the next design.
A company is developing a self-service kiosk for a railway station. Explain how it would apply the five stages of user-centred design.
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