What is Human-Centered Design?

This article was written by: Mr. Muhannad Al-Subaie

Note: The opinions expressed in this article are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

I recently read a book published by IDEO, a renowned organization dedicated to creating sustainable solutions for developing countries.

The book is titled: "THE FIELD GUIDE TO HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN". This article can be considered a summary of the lessons I learned from the book, supplemented by a touch of my practical experience in research and client experience. However, the article is by no means a substitute for reading the book.

The science and art of human-centered design as a whole, its adherents believe that most of the world's problems have a solution, and the greatest likelihood is that this solution lies within the hands of the problem owners themselves. Those working in this field innovate and create solutions that primarily center around the needs of the problem owners.

IDEO.org

This organization has developed a philosophy for this type of design through specific procedural steps. While their method is not the best, it has led to numerous solutions in various fields.

1. Inspiration

   
   

   Learn how to understand people, observe and monitor their lives, listen to their interests and desires, meet them and ask the right questions...so you're ready to find solutions for them. This is where marketing research comes in, with its wide range of applications, to gather the information needed for this stage.

2. Idea Generation

   
   

   Use what you learned in the previous stage to generate numerous ideas, identifying appropriate design opportunities, testing them, and modifying them until you arrive at the optimal idea. At this stage, there's no room for judgment; you must be spontaneous, like a child, and generate as many ideas as possible. Don't judge people, but rather judge ideas. Don't discount any idea, no matter how crazy or illogical it may seem. All ideas are analyzed, and their feasibility is verified by testing them with target audiences. User research and concept testing play a significant role in helping designers determine the feasibility of an idea. The journey begins with acknowledging ambiguity and seeking solutions to clear the fog during the design process. Otherwise, if everything is clear from the start, what's the point of using innovators?.

   
   

3. Optimism

   
   

   Designers must have a positive spirit, believing in their ability to reach a solution like no other, even if those who came before them haven't done so for hundreds of years. By working with this mindset, the likelihood of finding a real solution is much greater than if the premise is that many of our predecessors failed to find a solution to this problem, and finding a solution is nearly impossible.

   
   
   
   

4. Flexibility

   
   

   Trial and error are axiomatic in human-centered design. Remember that many of the great innovations that changed the world for the better didn't come about by chance, but rather through a lot of effort, trial and error, and trying again. Each failed experiment serves as a lesson learned for the next until the optimal solution is reached.

   
   

   Putting yourself in the shoes of the problem's owners, abandoning all your preconceived beliefs and convictions, and moving away from thinking in traditional, outdated ways is a prerequisite for your success.

Who needs to adopt this mindset?

• Step One: Framing the Challenge

Briefly write down the challenge you want your design to solve. List the challenges you'll face to arrive at the best solution, including all proposed solutions and any constraints that may arise during the development of the solution. When defining the scope of the problem, you must be balanced. Don't make it too narrow, as this will prevent you from arriving at creative solutions. Don't make the scope too broad, as this will lead you to lose your bearings and not know where to start. You must be wise in defining your target audience and ask the team to challenge and ask all the questions they have.

Now that you've reached this point, review everything you've learned and filter your ideas through the challenges and constraints again, even if it seems repetitive. Reaching the best solution isn't necessarily the first time you try. If you can arrive at five main proposed solutions in just a few minutes, you're on the right track.

• Step Two: Develop a Project Plan

Get your paperwork in order, identify your team's strengths, and begin by determining what your team will need to come up with the most innovative solutions. Starting with the project timeline and setting dates for key milestones along the way, then consider the human and material resources you have to determine how best to utilize them. If there are specific resource constraints and barriers, consider how you will overcome them.

Before launching the project, you must be armed with sufficient knowledge about the problem and the solution you will propose. Determine what needs to be accomplished before launching the project by reading specific knowledge sources or consulting specific experts. Then, answer some of the following questions: Will the team need to go to the field? How many visits will they need? Will our partners help us with field visits? Will we need to make personal efforts, such as travel, etc.? How much money, time, and human resources will we need to do this?

Based on all the information, what adjustments should be made to the project plan before launching it?

The idea behind these questions is to reflect on the project before you rush into launching it without thinking.

• Step Three: Forming the Team

The human-centered design methodology relies primarily on collective effort. The team must include a diverse and diverse group of specialists and thinkers to overcome any obstacle while coming up with a creative solution to any problem. First, you must determine the number of human resources required to complete the project and ensure they can work with you on it according to the specified timeline. Who are the key members and what are their strengths and weaknesses? Are there specific professional aspects you need for your project but haven't yet found someone who can work on them? Is it possible to find someone who can work on these aspects alone?

• Step Four: Recruitment Tools

The trick isn't to talk to everyone you're designing for. It's to know who you need to interview, interview the right people, ask the right questions, and know in advance what information you need from them. Remember that the information you collect can be analyzed based on demographic differences, such as gender, race, religion, and social class, or it can be analyzed and segmented into groups with similar behaviors, perspectives, and beliefs. This is called psychographic segmentation. When you want to determine who you'll interview, consider the demographic data and what you'll need to know from each group.

Consider the culture of the place where the interviews will be conducted. For example, some cultures reject the idea of ​​men meeting women or vice versa. You can consider conducting group interviews, as is the case in qualitative research, with the importance of ensuring that participants in these groups are demographically or psychologically homogeneous. Ensure that the target sample includes both majorities and minorities (all spectrums) so that the insights resulting from this interview are more comprehensive.

• Step Five: Desk Research

The success of human-centered design depends largely on talking to people about their challenges, aspirations, and constraints. However, this is not enough. To ensure you have the bigger picture, you must conduct some desk research to learn more about the history of the problem, its social dimensions, and how other people have recently dealt with it. This also supports what we discussed earlier (arming yourself with knowledge).

Once you know the challenge your design needs to overcome, you must build a sufficient body of knowledge to understand the problem from multiple dimensions. This can be achieved by conducting desk research that examines and crunches information published publicly, whether on the internet, in specialized magazines, newspapers, books, etc.

Think about solutions that others have previously come up with. Your knowledge of what is possible can inspire you to come up with more possible solutions. Which of these solutions others have previously come up with helped solve the problem? Which of them failed? Are there solutions similar to what you have considered? Has one of these solutions inspired you to create a new solution that improves on the old one? With the facts you gather through desk research, you will be able to understand the general context of the problem. Designers cannot access this information through interviews alone, as these are subjective and insufficient to understand the big picture.

• Step Six: Interviews

What distinguishes interviews as a research tool is that they are inspiring and generate many insights. Through them, you will hear the problem described in the vocabulary used by those involved. Conducting the interview in the place where the problem's owners work or live is in itself a rich experience that will help you understand their lifestyle, behaviors, and way of thinking. The number of interviewers should not exceed three to avoid annoying the interviewee. Each interviewer should have a clear role: one asks the questions, another takes notes, and a third takes pictures. The first two tasks can be performed by the same person. Questions asked during the interview should be prepared in advance, using a scientific method that advances from general questions to more specific ones (the funnel technique).

Make sure to record the participant's answers verbatim, not according to your own understanding. The respondent's answers are only one of many sources of information from the interview. You should also focus on the participant's body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice. Don't forget to ensure the participant's consent before taking photos or recording. Ethnographic research involves living with the target group and observing their daily routine, recording everything you hear and see. In short, you must be their shadow, accompanying them throughout the day. This way, you will learn a lot about them and capture many insights.

Extensive reliance is placed on qualitative research techniques because the key to providing a creative solution is understanding the group for whom the solution is being designed. Qualitative research is best when understanding the target group. Many qualitative research techniques break down language barriers between the researcher and the target group.

Brainstorming requires creative and outside-the-box thinking. Since those who adopt this design method believe that solutions lie within the minds of those suffering from the problem, brainstorming sessions are held with them. Before this happens, the facilitator has a clear understanding of what they want from them and has a specific question guide to help brainstorm ideas, including many open-ended questions that help generate unique ideas.

Step Seven: Idea Generation

You must employ everything you learned in the previous stage to generate several ideas, identifying appropriate design opportunities, testing them, and modifying them until you arrive at the optimal idea. To generate ideas, the project leaders, who have already conducted several research projects individually or collectively using various techniques, meet to present the main findings of the research phase and share stories that inspired them during their study of the target audience. This meeting brings ideas together, develops understanding, and justifies many ambiguities, much like a puzzle. General key features can be established around the problem the project focuses on.

After building a shared understanding, each individual who worked on the project can then nominate their top five ideas to begin a new phase of extrapolation and analysis of ideas to select the best ones. In this exercise, similar ideas can be combined or existing ideas can be developed based on other ideas to lay the foundation for the initial design of the desired solution. The key features of the problem are leveraged and design opportunities are identified by asking the question, "How can we...?" Then mention one key feature and continue doing so until you have developed design opportunities that include all the key features of the problem.

Step 8: Developing a Preliminary Concept, Testing, and Refining It

In this step, the design team begins developing the initial design concept for the previously agreed-upon solution. The concept is later tested with the same target audience to confirm it. The target audience may not like the concept, and feedback and objections from the target audience become a reliable source of information for refining the concept. (The idea of ​​embodying the solution in a concept aims to reduce costs. The concept is merely ink on paper, while developing the product and manufacturing samples could be prohibitively expensive, in addition to the cost of refining it later.)

After this stage, the task shifts from selecting the idea and creating a concept to considering testing the most important elements of the idea, according to the project team. Some test the name of the solution, others the logo, and others design a prototype of the product if it is a tangible product. They use storyboarding techniques or a role-playing game to test the solution if it is an intangible service, and test specific elements of it in real life. The idea is similar to the entrepreneurial approach (lean methodology). Now, how will the service be launched in the target market? All team members are asked to fill out the famous business model canvas, either collectively or individually, and then re-test it. Hire some experts to review the prototype and business model to ensure the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed solution.

• The Final Step: Implementation

Bringing the chosen design to life, bringing the product or service to market, and considering how to maximize the benefits of its use. The implementation phase begins with testing a real-world prototype. This testing may not only relate to the product and its use, but also includes testing distribution channels, marketing, etc. During this phase, feedback continues, and rapid adjustments are made. After ensuring the product's readiness, an implementation plan is developed for launching it in the target market. A timeline is set for this, along with identifying the necessary resources, just as in the first step (inspiration). Key partners/main supporters are identified, based on what was previously prepared in the Canvas model. A funding strategy or key supporters are also identified, which is important for non-profit organizations. The project team may adopt a strategy to request funding through crowdfunding platforms. For organizations that follow this design methodology, project managers are required to allocate a budget for implementation.

Later, after the first batch of the product is ready, the trial phase comes. Although we have tested the product before, this phase is specific to testing the entire system's operations that ensure its continuity. Even publishing houses, no matter how famous the author is, do not print imaginary quantities of any book, even if they expect it to achieve huge sales. Rather, they rely on printing specific quantities in the form of editions. When these quantities run out, and based on the demand data in the first edition, they are followed by other editions in larger or smaller quantities, or the book is not reprinted again. After the trial launch, the actual launch phase begins, and key performance indicators are set to monitor the success of the idea, as well as listening to the customer's voice and using quantitative and qualitative research for this purpose. In light of these measurements, the necessary adjustments are made to the product.

In conclusion

Although the company I spoke about and its book focus their efforts on developing and poor countries, as well as those torn apart by war, the technologies they employ can be applied to all kinds of life's problems. Sometimes the solution is very simple and right in front of our eyes, but we can't reach it because we haven't thought about it in the first place. These tools used by IDEO will help you reach a solution centered around human needs.