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What are User-Centered Design and User Experience?

User-Centered Design (UCD) is also known as “User Experience” (UX) or simply “Usability”. UCD is an approach to design that grounds the process in information about the people who will use the product. UCD can be characterized as a problem solving process that not only requires designers to predict how users are likely to use a product, but also to test the validity of their assumptions in real world tests with actual users. UCD processes focus on users through the planning, design and development of a product.

Why UX at Tufts?

With the recent creation of the Design and Usability Services group (located within ESTS), UIT has committed to integrating User-Centered Design best practices to the development, and implementation of tools and services it provides to the Tufts community. UCD can support the transformation of UIT into a service-oriented organization, by helping meet client needs more accurately and efficiently. The User-Centered Design Affinity group started as a vehicle to share knowledge across UIT directorates, and now includes colleagues from other Tufts organizations, to allow for broader knowledge sharing.