User-Centered Systems Design: A Brief History - Foundations for Designing User-Centered Systems - page 32

Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), the focus shifted to understanding how to design
visual layouts and the optimization of input devices. Developments in the tech-
nology of the devices (e.g., mobile computing, embedded computation, and sensor
technologies), and in input methods (e.g., sound, vision, and gesture), have led to a
proliferation of design and evaluation methods and a focus on the effects of context
on user's experiences of devices, applications, and services. Further, as the uses of
technology have been ever more democratized—computers are no longer only
available to a few expert users—the effects of individual differences or diver-
gences in use by different user populations have also been increasingly of interest
(e.g., differences between children and adults, cultural differences in uptake and
use, gender differences in use). Research has also focused on much broader con-
cerns, such as the effects of technology design and uptake in terms of social impact
and cultural/global sustainability.
2.2 Influential and Related Research Fields
The intellectual roots of User-Centered Design (UCD, also sometimes called
User-Centered System Design, UCSD) lie in several areas of basic and applied
research. These include:
• Cognitive and social psychology
• Linguistics
• Mathematics
• Computer science
• Engineering
• Human factors and ergonomics
• Socio-technical systems design
• Scientific management
• Work, industrial, and occupational psychology
• Human relations
• Organizational behavior.
User-centered systems designers also draw on basic research in anthropology,
sociology, and information science, and in recent years there has been considerable
overlap with ideas flowing between UCD researchers and practitioners and those
in research areas such as user experience (UX), human-computer interaction,
computer supported cooperative work, computer-mediated communication, and
ubiquitous/pervasive computing.
Figure 2.1 presents a simple summary of roots of UCD and how they are
related. It is deliberately simplistic but should provide you with some insights into
how UCD came about.