Fundamentals of Designing User Interaction - Basic Concepts
Data-centered design means that the design of the interface supports a model where a user can browse for data and edit it directly instead of having to first locate an appropriate editor or application. As a user interacts with data, the corresponding commands and tools to manipulate the data or the view of the data become available to the user automatically. This frees a user to focus on the information and tasks rather than on applications and how applications interact.
In this data-centered context, a document is a common unit of data used in tasks and exchanged between users. The use of the term is not limited to the output of a word-processing or spreadsheet application, but it emphasizes that the focus of design is on data rather than on the underlying application.
Fundamentals of Designing User Interaction
Design Specifications and Guidelines