Enhancing User-Centered Design by Adopting the Taguchi Philosophy

Abstract

Since the 1980s User-Centered Design (UCD) has been becoming popular in the ICT industry. It helps seek usable designs through a set of workflows, evaluation methods, and design approaches, which construct a comprehensive UCD framework. Along with its extensive utilizations, its pitfalls are also exposed in cost-benefit, robustness, and optimization respects. However, applying the Taguchi Method can remedy these pitfalls to gain robust optimal designs. This approach is feasible but less emphasized in the Human-Computer Interaction field. From a theoretical perspective, this paper depicts a practical approach to enhance UCD framework by adopting the Taguchi philosophy. Based on the analysis of the UCD framework and the Taguchi Method, it discusses key adaptation points for the Taguchi philosophy adoption in the UCD framework. As a result, the Taguchi-Compliant User-Centered Design (TC-UCD) framework is proposed in this paper.

A study of designer familiarity with product and user during requirement elicitation

“…Knowing who your users are, their environment, and their requirements are necessary information in planning and designing a project [23]. By doing so, the designer ensures a useable design is developed before product delivery [24]. It demands that user's cultural background should be considered and is converted into design information that can be used in the final product [25] Users are a valuable source of information in assisting designers to understand the requirements for the successful design of a product [20].…”

Optimization of user experience in interaction design through a Taguchi‐based hybrid approach

“…This process usually requires many iterations to obtain the optimal design, costing a substantial amount of time and money. Second, design and evaluation are usually two separate phases in the current UCD, and few mechanisms exist to integrate them (Zhou et al, ). Therefore, the UCD provides insufficient insight for design.…”

“…Second, design and evaluation are usually two separate phases in the current UCD, and few mechanisms exist to integrate them (Zhou et al, 2007). Therefore, the UCD provides insufficient insight for design.…”

“…It can help derive optimal processes and products as well as identify the control factors that significantly influence a particular quality characteristic (Taguchi, Chowdhury, & Wu, 2005). For interaction design, the Taguchi method can connect the design patterns with the UX characteristics to achieve robustness and optimization (Zhou et al, 2007) and thus facilitate user participation and maximize the effectiveness of the UX evaluation process while minimizing the time required for development (Smith & Dunckley, 1998).…”

“…To obtain an optimal design is a crucial problem in interaction design, because it can make an interactive product more competitive.User centered design (UCD), which involves end users throughout the entire design phase, has typically been applied for interaction design. However, adopting UCD to derive the optimal product entails limitations such as high cost and time consuming (Zhou, Heesom, & Georgakis, 2007). To effectively derive the optimal design for interactive products, Guo, Liu, Cao, Liu, and Li (2016) proposed a method that used back-propagation neural network to build quantitative model between design patterns and performance characteristics and then used a genetic algorithm to search for an optimal design.…”