User Centred Design (UCD) Research Group

Description

The roots of what is now Cardiff Met’s User Centred Design (UCD) research group lies in Cardiff School of Art and Design’s (CSAD) Programme for Advanced Interactive Prototype Research (PAIPR). Programme for Advanced Interactive Prototype Research was established in 2002 to investigate methods for the rapid design and development of computer embedded products such as mobile phones and medical devices.

Meanwhile, the National Centre for Product Design and Development Research (PDR), also based at Cardiff Met, had been examining the effective implementation of Cardiff Met’s User Centred Design processes within commercial practice. This work led to the establishment of PDR’s User Centred Design laboratory funded by the Welsh Government though an Academic Expertise for Business grant.

The User Centred Design research group brings together these two strands in a cross-unit collaboration between Cardiff School of Art and Design and PDR. In recent years the centre has developed further interests connected to the importance of the prototype as a focus around which ethnographical research methods can be deployed in design praxis. The group places a great deal of emphasis on the applied and works on the development of User Centred Design tools and process. They have worked closely with blue chip companies such as Sony-Ericsson and Kenwood as well as non-governmental organisations, and many of the techniques developed through the group’s research are deployed directly in commercial design projects through PDR’s commercial User Centred Design offering.

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

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University affiliation(s)

Cardiff Metropolitan University
Llandaff Campus
Western Ave
Cardiff
CF5 2YB