brukerblikk

Brukerblikk is a Norwegian term used in user-centered design, service design, and public administration to describe maintaining a user-focused viewpoint throughout the development and evaluation of products and services. It emphasizes understanding who the users are, what they need, how they behave, and which barriers they face, with the goal of improving usability, accessibility, and overall user satisfaction.

Origin and usage: The concept is widely used in Norwegian design practice and government digital services. It is treated as a competence or mindset that should inform governance, requirements gathering, design decisions, and evaluative testing, rather than as a one-off phase.

Approaches and tools: Common methods include user research (interviews, observations, surveys), creating personas and user journeys, scenario-based design, usability testing, and accessibility assessments. Content design and plain language strategies are often aligned with brukers blikk to ensure clarity, inclusivity, and effective communication.

Applications: In the public sector, brukerblikk guides the design of online portals, forms, and workflows to reduce complexity and dropout rates. In product development, it shapes feature prioritization, information architecture, help and support systems, and messaging, ensuring that the end experience remains centered on real user needs.

Relation to other concepts: It is closely related to user-centered design, human-centered design, and service design, with a specific emphasis in Norwegian practice on public services, transparency, and understandable language.

Critique: Critics note that achieving a true brukers blikk requires diverse user input, adequate resources, and ongoing evaluation, and that tensions can arise between user needs, business objectives, and technical constraints.