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What other well known processes or approaches for creating an user experience (such as an app or website) exist except the user centered design approach and what are their strengths and weaknesses?

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All UX tends to be user-centered by definition. – DA01 Jan 23 at 22:07
is this for a school project or something? – Go Fuckyourself Jan 23 at 23:39
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UCD is about the overall process. Methods are about activities you can perform during a process. Usability engineering can be viewed as another process type that focus more on "achieving goals" than "involve end users"... Usability testing, interviews, focus groups, surveys, persona, scenarios, wire-framing, heuristic evaluation, cognitive walk-trough, logging of support activity, A/B-testing, analysis of web metrics etc etc are methods you can carry out during the process. Regardless of which approach you use. – Jørn E. Angeltveit Jan 24 at 0:42

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If you looking for different processes rather than methods, there are

Four of them did I examine for innovation capabilites in a past thread (UCD and innovation):

So, one could say UCD is more an engineer attitude - problem found, problem solved. And in an engineers' attitude, all decision are traceable back to a requirement.

And Design Thinking is a designers' attitude - problem seen, play around, solution found. The ideation phase isn't really traceable, so the solution is a bit arbitrary.

LeanUx is out of a startup-mind - solution proposed, solution tested, solution refined. The emphasis lies on a fast product launch and gradual advancements.

Finally, Data Driven Design comes from a marketing perspective - set up business goal, test refinements, take best measured. It is not aiming for innovation, but optimization.

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+1 Good collection of different approaches – kontur Jan 24 at 10:31
Yes, I'm thinking about processes rather than individual methods. I edited the question. – Tony Bolero Jan 24 at 14:52
is User Centered Design the same as Goal Directed Design? – K.. Jan 24 at 14:59
@K.. Haven't heard before, but yes, it seems like to have the same idea as UCD: building software around personas and there actual needs and goals. I will add it. – FrankL Jan 26 at 8:08
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Though I'm not sure this question fits in the rules of the FAQ...

Dan Saffer's "Designing for Interaction" lists 4 techniques:

  • User-Centered design
  • Systems design
  • Activity-centered design
  • Genius design

Each technique has its pros and cons. A quick search should give you descriptions of each term.

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I'e always liked this overview of design decision styles by Jared Spool: http://www.uie.com/articles/five_design_decision_styles/

He lists: 1. unintended design 2. self design 3. genius design 4. activity-focussed design 5. user-focussed design

The last one is described as "This design style is the high-end approach and is necessary if the team is looking to create an excellent experience overall. To do that, the team will use user-focused techniques, such as field research and robust persona creation, ensuring the team understands the contextual nature of the users' experience." That, to me, is user-centered design.

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