User-centered design

User-centered design (UCD) is a design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of the end user of an interface or document are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process.

Why User-centered design?

As couchsurfing.com becomes more complicated our designers face new challenges in helping users use the site effectively. User-centered design tries to optimize the user interface around how people can, want, or need to work, rather than forcing the users to change how they work to accommodate the system or function. By utilizing user-centered design we can create a web site which offers the users an experience that is not only highly usable, but also an enjoyable experience.

Our Team

• Chris Burley - Emoriginal - Lead UED Coordinator / Recruiter
• Anu Maatta - Coordinator/Lead for sub projects

Who we are looking for

• Maybe you? - Information Architecture specialist
• Maybe you? - Usability Specialist

Take me down for support in that role, contact me for details Sirius

• Maybe you? - AJAX Specialist
• Maybe you? - UE Research
• Maybe you? - ??

Our Philosophy

Never forget the needs of the CouchSurfers using our site. Our members are trying to travel, experience the world and build relationships full of meaning let's make it an easy and positive experience.

Our Goals

1. Consider the CS Philosophy when thinking about the design.
2. Create designs which lead to less frustration, and higher satisfaction for users.

Our Projects

1. CouchSurfing.com Redesign - The core site design and interaction needs to be analyzed and improved.
   1. Meetings page analysis and redesign - check Participate_Live_Feedback_-_Upgrade_Meet_Functionality
   2. Profile page analysis and redesign
   3. more?
2. Telephone Surfing - possibly offer advise and guidance to this group.
3. More Main projects?

Couchsurfing Process

1. Let's create this together as a team!

Traditional Processes

There are several phases and processes in the user interface design some of which are more demanded upon than others depending on the project.

1. Functionality requirements gathering - assembling a list of the functionality required of the system to accomplish the goals of the project and the potential needs of the users.
2. User analysis - analyzation of the potential users of the system either through discussion with people who work with the users and/or the potential users themselves. Through the couchsurfing website it is also possible to implement polls to gather user information.Typical questions involve:
   1. What would the user want the system to do?
   2. How would the system fit in with the users normal workflow or daily activities?
   3. How technically savvy is the user and what similar systems does the user already use?
   4. What interface look & feel styles appeal to the user?
3. Information architecture - development of the process and/or information flow of the system (i.e. for phone tree systems, this would be an option tree flowchart and for web sites this would be a site flow that shows the hierarchy of the pages).
4. Prototyping - development of wireframes, either in the form of paper prototypes or simple interactive screens. These prototypes are stripped of all look & feel elements and most content in order to concentrate on the interface.
5. Usability testing - testing of the prototypes on an actual user—often using a technique called talk aloud protocol where you ask the user to talk about their thoughts during the experience. This can be done using the usability testing group.
6. Graphic Interface design - actual look & feel design of the final graphical user interface (GUI) based on the findings developed during the usability testing. We will cooperate with the Creative Design group in order to produce the final product.

User interface design needs good understanding of user needs..