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Our FieldCentralis is part of an emerging discipline known as "User Experience", also sometimes called "User-Centered Design". The field integrates usability engineering, cognitive science, anthropology and design to ensure that interactions with a product, service or company are consistently rewarding from the customer's point of view.This "user-centered" approach to design is distinguished by its emphasis on a few guiding principles:
Products and services must be useful and usable as well as desirable.Great user experiences are great because they address real customer needs thoughtfully and thoroughly, making it easier for people to accomplish their goals. |
Take the customer's perspective.Marketers often have a wealth of information about their customers. Still, it's sometimes hard for insiders to see their offering from the customer's point of view. User experience specialists provide an outside perspective, working to ensure that the voice of the user is heard.
Study what people do, not just what they say.Focus groups and surveys are excellent tools for studying people's attitudes, but they may shed little light on how people will actually use a product or service -- people simply can't predict or recall their behavior with sufficient accuracy. That's why we stress the importance of field observations and structured user testing of prototypes. |
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