User Centered Design Methods in Software Development: A Case Study in a Peruvian Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships

This paper presents a case study where User-Centered Design (UCD) methodologies were employed to develop a software solution. Techniques used, such as interviews with users and the creation of user personas, will be described as an approach to understanding the needs and expectations of end users. This study focuses on the Office of Scholarships and Tutoring at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. This office relies on numerous non-integrated tools in its day-to-day operations, leading to manual and repetitive tasks. A software solution is then thought of as an alternative to streamline these processes, improving the user experience for the office's workers and clients. The development of this system was carried on by adopting UCD techniques. The developed software was evaluated by 12 test users who performed a specific task, followed by interviews and a System Usability Scale (SUS) based questionnaire. The results indicated that all users successfully completed their objectives and found the system simple to use. Even though some design flaws were detected, the software scored 82.29 in the SUS scale.