User-Centered Design in the Face of Limited User Access

Time with users is a precious commodity that has become increasingly difficult to come by, making it difficult to always employ traditional user study methods. Such methods also run into challenges in sensitive industries, where it is not always possible to openly engage with end-users. These barriers jeopardize good design, and limited user access seeds temptation to bypass user engagement altogether. The primary goal of this work is to share techniques and lessons learned for successful user engagement in the face of limited access to end-users. Three methods are presented here, usage of subject matter experts (SMEs), analogous use cases, and surrogate users, along with key successes and challenges for each. The lessons, limitations, and suggestions presented here reflect work performed across multiple projects over the past several years, where we have utilized combinations of these techniques for conducting user-centered design in the absence of regular direct user engagement.