User-Centered Design Journey for Pattern Development

Abstract

Digital information is widely accessed through tangible mediums such as desktop, tablets, smart phones, and so on. It is important to make the digitized information easily as well as effectively perceivable and interactive, through user interfaces on these devices. There are several challenges and complexities involved in designing interfaces to ensure good user experience. This paper describes the journey of a user experience designer in effectively selecting a user interface design based on User-Centered Design approach. In this journey, we address multiple aspects: understanding user as well as business perspectives, challenges faced by end-user and designer, evaluation of various design solutions in problem context, selecting the most apt solution and formulation of a design pattern appropriate to the problem. The paper illustrates this journey through a case study and also describes the final pattern manifestation - 'Progressive disclosure' pattern. The progressive disclosure pattern enables user to focus on a task at hand by reducing clutter and confusion, and at the same time providing means to deep dive into details. The case study helps to understand how the non-linear nature of the journey is accommodative and flexible of the newly identified problems or ideas for solution, which eventually helped in creating robust and long-lasting patterns.