User-centered design is both a philosophy and a systematic process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of the user community become continuous inputs throughout the stages of the product design. Unlike other design philosophies, user-centered design optimizes the user interface around how people can, want, or need to work, rather than forcing the users to change how they work to accommodate the product developer’s design approach. A good user-centered design will exploit user characteristics, including: short and long-term memory; physical, semantic, cultural and logical constraints; and learned and natural cognitive traits. These characteristics become the principle foundation for designing the mechanisms by which the user interacts with and employs the product.
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