Iterative Design for User Needs
The iterative design process allows designers to adjust the product based on user feedback. The result is a more usable and successful product that better matches users’ needs and preferences. Iterative design is a useful process for many different types of projects, from software development to engineering and even in business. It can be used at any stage of the design life cycle and is particularly effective when a project involves user testing.
Iterative design is a method of developing products or systems that is designed to be improved based on continuous input from stakeholders or users. The iterative process is a common tool used by teams in a variety of industries, including business development, marketing research and product design. It is often applied to new product designs but can be employed to review existing products and processes as well.
The basic principle of Iterative design is that each revision or “iteration” should be a chance to improve the product by testing the new version against the previous one. The changes are made to the existing design based on the results of the testing and a decision is then made about whether to include those improvements in the final version of the product or not. The iterative process enables the best of the original design to be retained and allows for the elimination or modification of any parts of the original that are not found to work.
Iterative Design for User Needs and Preferences
Using the iterative process of design means that any problems that have been discovered in user testing can be addressed quickly. This prevents the need for extensive or costly redesign of a finished product. It also ensures that the product can be launched as soon as possible and that users are getting what they need from it rather than a confusing, difficult to use piece of technology.
It is important to note that not all design changes will lead to a greater improvement in usability. In fact, some will have no impact at all. This is because the changes are normally localized to those interface elements that were found to cause difficulties for test users. The changes might be a simple fix or they might involve changing the way in which an interface element is presented to the user.
For example, a change might be made to an electronic white pages system where users were having difficulty finding telephone numbers that could be matched either exactly or by phonetically. In the first iteration of the new version of this system, the search terms were presented to users in a more explicit way and it was found that this reduced the number of searches that were unsuccessful.
It is not known for sure how many iterations of a particular interface design are necessary to achieve substantial gains in usability but the small amount of documented case studies suggests that it may be reasonable to expect that the initial iterations will provide the greatest improvements. This is because the first iterations are likely to be the ones that address all the major “usability catastrophes” that were observed during the initial tests.