Term
System-Centered Design
Designing the interface around the system's objects, processes, and architecture before the user's language and goals.
System-centered design is the opposite pull from human-centered design. The interface exposes the system’s own categories first: database objects, protocols, internal modules, permission surfaces, org boundaries, or engineering constraints.
This is not always wrong. Expert tools sometimes need exact system language because the user’s work really is expressed in those concepts. It becomes an antipattern when the target user arrives with a broader goal and must learn the product’s implementation model before making the first meaningful decision.
The design response is not to hide all complexity. It is to put user goals at the top level, provide a recommended path for the common case, and make expert controls available at the moment they become useful.
Used in
Related
- Mental ModelThe user's internal understanding of how a task, product, or domain works, built from prior experience and current cues.
- Information ArchitectureThe structure, labels, and navigation paths that determine how users find, understand, and move through information or tasks.
- Progressive DisclosureReveal complexity gradually as the user needs it, rather than presenting every option at once.