User-Centred Design
User-Centred Design is an umbrella term that refers to a process where the end user is taken into firm consideration during the design and development processes. UCD as a process can be applied to almost anything, but my focus is on web applications and web sites.
How Do I Approach It?
I factor a UCD-approach into all of the work I produce. It is mostly a matter of just thinking about all of the people who will be using a system or web site during the design and development process, rationalisaing decisions against both business requirements and user requirements.
What Do I Do?
At all stages of design and development, I regularly switch between my 'developer's hat' and my 'end-user hat'. This just means that I am always making sure that not only is something technically achievable and sound, but it will make sense to the user and will be easy to work with.
Using this approach allows me to ensure that the final product is designed and developed in according to more than just a set of technical requirements, which may have been put together 'in a vacuum'. This brings about the realisation that the people using the system and the people creating the system often have very different requirements and perspectives, so a decision must be made as to who's point of view is more important in the long run.
Using an approach based on UCD principles, the outcome should be a usable system, which works intuitively and as people expect it to work.