Hello, my name is John Varon, and in these lessons, you will learn about helping end users. In this lesson, I will show you about user -centered design. When I say user -centered design, I'm simply talking about designing the user interface with a focus on what benefits the end users. There is also a specific design process and methodology called user -centered design, or UCD for short. Just to be clear, that's not what we're talking about in this lesson. I'm using the phrase in a more general sense. Sometimes it can also be called UX, or user experience design. A user -friendly design is one that makes it easy for users to learn and use the application. Everything should be intuitive, so that users don't need to read an entire user manual before being able to use your application. The user interface should also flow in a logical manner, following the same process as the user's own workflow. Therefore, going from how they normally do their job to using the application should be a seamless process. In general, a user -centered design should focus on five key areas. Number one is how easy it is to learn. The first time a user has to use certain functionality, they shouldn't be completely lost. It should usually be fairly clear where they need to go and what they need to do. Number two is efficiency. Doing something should not be overly complicated. It can help to think in terms of clicks, meaning mouse clicks. How many mouse clicks does it take to accomplish a task? The goal should be to minimize the number of clicks without compromising the other key aspects. Number three is recall, or how easy it is for users to remember what they've learned. If users pick things up quickly but then forget all of it by the time they use the application the next time, it's a problem. Therefore, keeping processes simple and easy to remember is a big advantage. Number four is mistakes. How many errors or mistakes do users make when they use the application? The goal should obviously be to minimize the number of errors. One way to do that is to prevent users from making mistakes. Another way is to guide them in the proper direction instead of leaving things open -ended where the user could choose incorrectly what to do. Number five is enjoyment or satisfaction. This one is simply about how enjoyable the application is to use. This is where things like artistic style and color palette can make a difference. While it would be great if we could address all five of these key areas, the reality is that we aren't creating standalone applications that we have full control over. These database applications are running inside of Microsoft Access, so we are limited by what Access can and cannot do. Some of the key areas are difficult for us to address and mostly out of our control, but not all of them. Namely, numbers one, two, and three, ease of learning, efficiency, and how easy it is to remember are largely governed by Microsoft Access itself. Although our design can definitely make a difference in those areas, we're not going to focus on them too much because we only have so much control over Microsoft Access's user interface. Number four, reducing the number of mistakes is one we have a lot of control over and one that Microsoft Access gives us a lot of tools which we can use to accomplish our goal. This is the main key area we will focus on, especially since it's usually the most important one in most business or corporate environments, which are the most common environments where Microsoft Access database applications are used. Number five, how enjoyable the application is to use, is also one we do not have a lot of control over. Microsoft Access does allow a tremendous amount of customization options, but it's limited by Access's own interface. Even so, we can change color palettes, background images, icons, and even use different user control visual styles. However, we will not be focusing on this key area much either, as it is largely artistic in nature and also involves design choices specific to particular groups of users or demographics. Thanks for watching. Stay tuned for the next lesson where I will show you about guiding users through the desired paths.
