Stakeholders may or may not be users. Stakeholders are not considered to be users if they are affected by an interactive system but don't interact with it or use its output.

Examples of stakeholders who are not users:

1. The non-technical managers of a team of technical users.

2. People affected by the noise produced by an interactive system.

3. Marketers affected by the impact of the use of the interactive system on the brand.

Examples:

1. A customer (user) uses a car reservation website to make a reservation - The customer is a primary user of the system.

2. A customer (user) calls the reservation centre where a customer service representative uses the same system to make the reservation for them -The customer is an indirect user of the system.

The context of use is described in user group profiles and personas (who are the users), as-is scenarios (how do users currently do tasks), task models (details about what the tasks are) and user journey maps (how users interact with the interactive system and the organisation providing it).

A user group profile is a generalised description of a collection of users with the same or similar personal characteristics and context of use related to the interactive system.

A persona is a description of a fictitious but realistic user and what he or she intends to do when using the interactive system.

An as-is scenario is a narrative text description of the procedure a specific user currently follows to complete one or more tasks,

A task model is a list of subtasks for each task which the user has to complete to reach their goals. Task models help the design team to design the right solution for each task. User journey maps provide an overview of the touchpoints where users interact with the interactive system and the organisation providing the interactive system. They help stakeholders and user experience professionals understand and optimise the user experience.

A user group profile is a generalised description of a collection of users with the same or similar personal characteristics and context of use related to the interactive system.

A persona is a description of a fictitious but realistic user and what he or she intends to do when using the interactive system.

The main purpose of personas and as-is scenarios is to identify user needs and make it easier for designers, developers and other stakeholders to understand who the users are, what they do, what their obstacles are, and to facilitate discussions within the design team.

Usability evaluation is a part of the phase: "Evaluate the design against user requirements"

Usability tests may occur at any time during the human-centred design process, from early analysis through interactive system delivery and beyond. Usability tests may be based on paper sketches or display mock-ups, as well as on interactive systems under design and completed interactive systems.

Usability evaluation

A process through which information about the usability of an interactive system is gathered in order to improve the interactive system (known as formative usability evaluation) or to assess the merit or worth of an interactive system (known as summative usability evaluation).

Usability evaluation

A process through which information about the usability of an interactive system is gathered in order to improve the interactive system (known as formative usability evaluation) or to assess the merit or worth of an interactive system (known as summative usability evaluation).

Note:

1. Usability evaluation is a common term for

a. Usability test;

b. User survey;

c. Usability inspection.

The purpose of "Design: produce design solutions to meet user requirements" is to convert user needs and user requirements into a working interactive system - that is, a design solution. Deliverables from the analysis of the context of use, such as user groups, as-is scenarios and personas are also used. The conversion considers dialogue principles, heuristics, style guides and design concepts like affordance and mental models as described in section 6.1. Design patterns are existing design solutions that have been shown to work for users and can therefore be reused in the designs of new interactive systems.

The approach is iterative as indicated by the following diagram: