Talk:Usage-centered design

Notable?
I've always considered this just to be Constantine and Lockwood's way to market their user-centered design techniques. If we can't come up with sources showing some general usage of the phrase, I think it should be deleted, with any useful material merged into user-centered design or similar, relevant articles. --Ronz 02:26, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

In my opinion the concepts "usage-centered design" and "user-centered design" belong to different concept levels. Usage-centered design is an exact design methodology consisting of a number of known steps. This term belongs to the same category as "contextual design" does. On the other hand, user-centered design is an overall design philosophy including some basic design principles. A Google search for "usage-centered design" returns 27 700 entries. Actually there are more people who use this methodology or who are close to it, but not everyone explicitly call it like this. I'm not sure, but it may even be a registered trademark. Anyway, it does exist. Nahrihra 00:01, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

In my view, Usage-centered design and activity-centered design are two different methodology which are employed to design and evaluate different type of system. Of course, they may share the common idea that "user"will not the core anymore, however, their key points are also quite different from each other.

Usage-centered design, just as the expression, is more concerned about the relationship between the users and the system/product they use. The system or the product is actually the object planned to be designed or improved and there is no other actions/ process/behavior/cognitive feature that eyond the scale of user-product will be taken into account. Usage-centered design is normally used in designing or evaluating uni-product systerm, where we have already had idea about what exactly the product is and who are the users.

["usage" refers to "the action, amount, or mode of using" or "manner of treating", according to Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary]

Comparatively,in activity-centered design,the goals that users want to reach is the most care during the activities. There maybe multiple systems occurred simultaneously, but play the roles of tools or assitants rather than the only object or oringinal point for design. Actually, the process or experience users may get from a series activities is the object, and the designers choose the proper system to help users catch their goal in the activities. Activity-centered design is generally used in creating new or conceptual multi-product system, and the designers maynot know what kind of technology they will use and what the final system will be at last.

["activity" refers to an organizational unit for performing a specific function or duties,according to Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary] —Preceding unsigned comment added by Clare Xie (talk • contribs) 18:14, 7 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I've tagged it as only having a single source. If we cannot find sources to demonstrate notability, then it should be deleted. --Ronz 18:33, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

"Usage-centered design" differs from "user-centered design" principally in the focus of attention--on use rather than on the user, which has real-world consequences in terms of what designers do, how they spend their time, and on aspects of the delivered product. It is also used as the name of a specific technique/method pioneered by Constantine and Lockwood (who were equal partners in its development). It is not a trademark. Various versions of it appear to have become well accepted and widely practiced, particularly in Europe. There is a substantial but not enormous literature, including case study reports, that can be recovered through a Google search or the originators horribly dated web site. Main reference is their book, Software for Use (Addison Wesley, 1999). (I'll edit the article to include that and other references when I am not on a slow conference wi-fi.) Stirrer (talk) 08:01, 10 April 2008 (UTC)