“How can government be more citizen-centered?”
“How can we build a food system better for everyone?”
“How might we design for thriving, living systems?”
These are all questions that leading design and innovation company IDEO is asking and answering through the practice of human-centered design. They have designed a new way for the people of Los Angeles to vote, built a new venture to restore trust in China’s food system, developed a powerful app-based service for people with diabetes, and much more.
Most simply, human-centered design is a mindset and creative process that puts people first. It focuses on making the people who will be using the product or service a central part of the process. It involves brainstorming and prototyping in a way that is flexible and readily incorporates feedback.
Human-Centered Design is part of a larger practice called design thinking. IDEO explains that design thinking, and with it, human-centered design, came from the inquiry of, “what can the field of design do for the world?” It was based on a challenge to move away from solving “simple problems” and towards solving “wicked problems” or problems that defy easy solutions, ones that are “complex, open-minded, and ambiguous.”
Design thinking encourages asking big questions about how to build a humane world, how to change big systems and institutions while still supporting individuals, how to adjust to our rapidly changing world, and more.
One may traditionally think of “designers” as creatives who built art or innovative products: graphic designers, architects, engineers, etc. However, design thinking and it’s human-centered process has allowed for non-profits, governments, social-enterprises and more to think about how they can create products and services that people actually want to use, and not what other people think they might want or need.
How does Human-Centered Design work?
DC Design, a group that practices human-centered design in their work describes the process in five parts:
- Empathize. This involves adopting a “learner’s mindset.” It means speaking with the people in the community who will be using the product or service. It can look like conducting interviews, living in the community, and inviting community members to be key participants in the design process.
- Define. A key aspect of the design process is asking why. The way this question is answered is important and should be open-ended in a way that allows for creativity in addressing it. DC Design gives the example of instead of defining one’s goal as “We need more prisons” or “We need to pass a law,” ask what the root of the problem is, such as “We need to maintain public safety.” This leaves room for more innovative solutions than preconceived notions of what’s best.
- Ideate. DC Design describes this part of the process as coming up with as many ideas as possible. This includes ideas that might at first seem impractical and to refrain from making initial judgments. This often means co-designing, or brainstorming alongside the people that live with the problem you aim to address.
- Prototype. This is how designers put their ideas into action. The key is to make these prototypes flexible enough to change or redesign based on feedback and to at times make multiple prototypes at once to see which works best for the individual you are designing for.
- Test and Iterate. Testing the prototype is a learning process, one where the designer should not try and defend the design they made. What works best for the person using the design? What does not? The designer should be ready and willing to return to earlier parts of the process as needed.
The above steps are described in more detail in this article by DC Design. IDEO uses a similar process. However, they break it down into three parts instead of five: inspiration, ideation, and implementation. They break down different examples of these methods in their online toolkit.
How do human-centered designs lead to better solutions?
Human-centered designs are more sustainable because they focus on what actually works and what humans want to and are willing to use. It represents a good business model because it allows for a higher return on investment and can help cut down extra customer service costs that come with goods or services that are confusing or hard to use.
However, business models aside, human-centered design also has great potential for social good. In a humanitarian context, so many non-profits and individuals looking to help can often end up doing more harm than good when they do not center the individuals they claim to be working for. These types of savior complexes can at best lead to a product or service that individuals don’t want and at worst be offensive and damaging to the community ecosystem.
Human-centered design trusts that people actually know what’s best for them and honors the creativity inside each of us, instead of making assumptions about their wants or needs.
Learn More
Visit IDEO’s design kit. In it, they address key mindsets that make up the human-centered design process. They address different methods for goal-setting, gaining input, brainstorming, and more. They also include a number of case studies that illustrate exactly how human-centered design can address different humanitarian issues. For example, they discuss how they worked with partner organizations to create a scalable and water and hygiene social enterprise in Nairobi and a sustainable community-owned health, agricultural, and water business in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Human-centered design isn’t just for those who consider themselves “designers.” This type of design thinking can be adopted by anyone. School teachers are even using it as a way to help the next generation learn empathy and how to enact social change through lesson plans by Design for Change. Whether you’re looking to create social change in government, food systems, or another area, human-centered design is a useful tool for creating sustainable and equitable impact.
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