Chapter 2: Four Approaches to Interaction Design

User Centered Design or UCD:

• UCD focuses on user needs and goals, where user data is the determining factor in making design decisions.
• This approach is best at getting designers to move away from their own preferences, and instead focus on  the needs and goals of the users.
• Follows the philosophy of "User knows best."

Activity Centered Design or ACD:

• ACD focuses on the tasks and activities that need to be accomplished, rather than the goals and preferences of users.
• Activity Theory states that people create tools as a result of "exteriorized" mental processes: creating the tool to support the task.
• *ACD Danger*
• "You'll get a different result if you set out to design a vase instead of something to hold flowers."

Systems Design:

• Systems Design is an analytical approach to design that focusses on the components of a system.
• The user is de-emphasized in favor of the context, but the designer doesn't discount discount user goals and needs.

Genius Design:

• Relies almost solely on the wisdom and experience of the designer to  make decisions.
• The approach best used by experinced designers.

"Jeff Hawkins, the creator of the Palm Pilot, spent most of his budget for the project on development and production of the product and had limited time for user research."