Around forty clients gathered in the Namahn library to listen to William Hudson describe his approach to user-centered design with use cases. Hudson, a UK- based software engineer with his own design consultancy , has extensive experience in designing interactive systems as well as being a writer and lecturer on the subject.
Both software development process methodologies (such as the Rational Unified Process) and agile processes (such as eXtreme Programming) are fundamentally system centered. Hudson introduced his listeners, many of whom were drawn from the software development field, to the principles of user-centered design and showed how it was possible to integrate this into all stages of the software development process.
He stressed the importance of the early creation of a conceptual model focused on the user rather than implementation issues. He then demonstrated how use cases can be employed to translate this abstract model into functional specifications. Producing these specifications helps make sure that user requirements are included in the final product, and that the interface is an integral part of it. The increased understanding and integration between software developers and usability specialists afforded by this approach provides a significant benefit.