Lessons Learned on Developing Educational Systems Using a Hybrid User Centered Methodology - New Contributions in Information Systems and Technologies - page 201

UCD is described in ISO 9241-210 [19] - Ergonomics of Human -System
Interaction (210: Human -centered design for interactive systems). This standard
describes an ideal situation where there are no barriers to the use of UCD
assumptions, except for the possible lack of competence on the part of the
development team [20]. Authors like Facer & Williamson [21], among others,
emphasize that UCD is a methodology that combines, among other things, the
participation of the user and formative evaluation of prototypes. According to ISO
9241-210 [19] standard, UCD projects are governed by six principles:
i) Explicit understanding of users, tasks and environments;

ii) Establishment of a multidisciplinary team;

iii) Interaction between the user and the system;

iv) Active involvement of users;

v) User experience; and

vi) The iteration of design solutions.

The methods used to develop the Univap Virtual [15] and Softvali [16] are based
on UCD assumptions, including the establishment of multidisciplinary teams,
organized by education professionals (researchers from psychology and pedagogy),
professionals in the field of computer science, specifically in the area of programming
and software engineering, usability designers with usability knowledge and finally
teachers and students.
Another method that incorporates UCD assumptions, is the Logical User Centered
Interactive Design (LUCID), in which Kreitzberg [22] identifies six phases: viewing,
discovery, project base, project detail, construction and launching. As most of the
previous methods it is based on UCD principles. LUCID employs rapid prototyping
and iterative usability tests.
Based on what we described in this section, we completely agree with the report
"Quality Framework for UK Government Website Design: Usability issues for
government websites", when it argues that UCD is a complement to software
development methods and is not a substitute for them [23].

4 Lessons Learned on Developing Educational Systems

By the assumptions and methods defined in User Centered Design, it appears that one
of the proposed improvements to be implemented involves not only to involve the
user in the evaluation (as verifier), but to integrate him into the team, as informant or
co-designer [24]. Iterative Design is one of the most important Methods for User
Centered Design and user satisfaction is the most effective measure [25], [26]. This
reinforced the importance of involving the user not only in the evaluation phase.
However, it is considered that the integration should be performed only in some
phases of the process, as is advocated by the authors of We!Design [27], which are
refered below.