Fundamentals of User Centred Design
Feb 2026
Prof. Shrikant Ekbote
What was your memorable
experience at IDS?
‘Why’ do we design?
‘How’ do we design?
What is ‘User Centred Design’?
Who are these ‘users’?
What is common among the the people
and what is different?
Activity 1:
• Pair up with the friend you least interact with in the class
• Try and understand who s/he is, what are her/his likes/dislikes, interests?
• What is the difference between you and your friend?
• Why is that difference ?
Humans are constantly engaged in doing
some activity- mental or physical
(Unless sleeping or unconscious)
Human sense making process
• Human perception: Process of receiving the sensory inputs
• Human Cognition: Processing of those inputs in the brain
• Cognition encompasses broader mental activities such as-
• Thinking, memory, reasoning, attention, and problem-
solving that manipulate that input
Key Cognitive processes:
• Thinking
• Memory
• Reasoning
• Attention
• Problem-solving
Things aren’t as straightforward
when it comes to human cognition
Let’s watch something interesting
• [Link]
• [Link]
[Link]
How do we act in the world?
Perception- Cognition- Action cycle
Seven-stage action cycle
Action Cycle explained
• [Link]
How can seven-stage action model be applied to these activities?
How can seven-stage action model be applied to these activities?
Goal: Writing an article on my laptop
Forming the Goal: My goal is to write an article using my laptop.
Planning the Action: I’ll choose a topic from my notes and books, use Google Docs, create a new
document, and type instead of using voice-to-text.
Specifying the Action Sequence: My sequence is: open laptop → connect to internet → open Chrome →
open Google Docs → create a new doc → write title and subtitle → draft content (with sub-steps like
checking notes and verifying facts).
Performing the Action: I follow this sequence and write the draft.
Perceiving the World State: I see my draft is missing a title, some sentences need improvement, and the
conclusion feels weak.
Interpreting the State: This article isn’t ready to publish — it needs edits and restructuring.
Evaluating the Outcome: My initial goal was a complete article, but I have only an incomplete draft.
This feedback gives me new goals: improve the ow, strengthen the conclusion, proofread, and verify facts
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Goal: Delete an email
Form the Goal —De ne what you want to achieve (e.g., “I want to delete an email”).
Plan the Action —Decide how to achieve it (e.g., “I’ll press the trash icon”).
Specify the Action Sequence —Translate your intention into speci c steps (e.g., “Tap the
icon”).
Perform the Action —Actually do it (e.g., tap!).
Perceive the World State —Observe the outcome (e.g., the email disappears).
Interpret What You See — Understand what the system did (e.g., it’s been moved to the trash
folder).
Compare with the Goal — Assess if the outcome matches your original goal (e.g., “Was it
successfully deleted? Yes.”).
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Activity 2:
• Form a team of 3 people
• Choose 10 different user, identify 10 activities done by those users
• Document those activities through photographs
• Analyse each activity using seven-stage action cycle
• Identify the cognitive processes involved in doing those activity
• Note down the context in which the activity is done