Evaluation of Project

I have found that this whole process is key to success with any product design. In my case, it is extremely useful in building a user-friendly website that works for its target audience. A successful website makes a successful business in this day and age. Companies are becoming more and more reliable on the web because it is so accessible to almost everyone. It widens up the market dramatically and can drastically change a company's income. Websites are the new way to advertise, buy and sell products, but you won't do very well if you don't consider your target audience. Every company needs to be aware of the people their aiming their products at, to get their thoughts and feelings. The user-centred design process gives you steps to follow to get the product that your target audience will want.
A huge part of this process is testing. It is vital that testing is done so you know exactly what your users want. Working with a website, it is vital that it is tested, especially for navigational purposes. The designer may think it's obvious on what buttons go to what page because they've been working on it for some time and are used to it. To twenty different people, it might not be so obvious. Simple methods like paper prototyping can be used to test the navigation of a site. A site that doesn't make its users think about what they're doing is a site that works. If you get no complaints and positive feedback, then you're on the right track. Testing straight away will save you so much time and money in the long run, instead of paying to have a site made and then find out that people find it stressful to use because they can't navigate around it and then pay more money to have it re-designed. You can also get feedback on the look and feel of your product. Colours, fonts, layout and imagery are equally as important to have an aesthetically pleasing product. Simple questionnaires can easily give you the feedback and criticism you need on the look of a design.
Another greatly important task is analysing and evaluating research and test results. It's all well and good that research and tests have been conducted, but it's what you do with those findings that matters. Fitting the design of the product around the information you've found out is important, so it meets the requirements.
For this project, keeping a blog has been very useful to make note of what I've done as I've gone through this process. It's great for keeping record so I don't have to try and remember what happened during the tests and write up everything at the end.