A designer must consider the needs, wants and limitations of the end user within every element of the design cycle. The ability to identify how users will interact with a product, service or system is vital for its success. To achieve this, designers must be able to acquire and analyse valid data without making assumptions about how the product may be used.

• The designer needs to have a deep understanding of the user, task and the environment.

• The process is iterative, led by the user and developed through user-centred evaluation.

• The product must address the whole user experience.

• UCD design teams are multidisciplinary.

• The five stages of UCD: research, concept, design, implementation, launch

• Inclusive design

• UCD design teams may include anthropologists, ethnographers and psychologists.

• Inclusive design requires designing universally accessible products for all users including those with physical, sensory, perceptual and other challenges and impairments.

The ability to put aside one’s own ideas and bias is essential for UCD. Designers must act with integrity and not project their own ideas of what the user requirements are when trying to create technological solutions to their problems.