Goal-Directed Design Process

Goal-Directed Design is a method of user-centered design that prioritizes looking for the goals of the end users and developing solutions to assist them in achieving those goals and overcoming the obstacles that block them. This is well documented in the books About Face and Designing for the Digital Age. Hugh Dubberly wrote a concise…

Data Models Clarify Users’ Mental Models

Data Models describe what will form the basis of the structure of the product. During the second phase of Goal-Directed Design (GDD), the team creates models describing the data from their research. One of the most critical is the persona which describes the users. Data Models are another and describe how the users’ mental models integrate together.

Personas

A Designer’s primary job is to represent the user. We do this through studying them, building empathy (affiliate), and documenting what we find. The best way to communicate who these users are is through Personas. Personas communicate research findings. They are research-based, though do not describe any one research participant in particular. They model the…