What Is Human-Centered Design? A Beginner’s Guide

Sneh Ratna Choudhary
Nov 7 · 4 min read

A basic overview of Human-Centered Design

Human-Centered Design or HCD is a design approach that aims to empathize with human needs and behavior among other parameters to arrive at solutions that will serve them well.

It involves a thorough process that begins with inspiration, moves on to ideation and ends with implementation.

Are Human-Centered Design and User Experience Design the same thing?

Before we get into Human-Centered design any further, it is important to understand the difference between HCD and User Experience Design. On the surface, it may seem like the same thing but while both involve a human-centered approach, there are more than a few differences.

Human-Centred Design is not exclusive to a particular field

This design approach isn’t just limited to say, a freelance designer dabbling in graphic design. Industrial designers, furniture designers and even architects may incorporate a human-centered design in their work.

User Experience acts as an interface between end-users and technology

UX design has only one aim — to improve product usability, accessibility and customer delight. It pertains to all aspects of a product and not just the design.

The ABCs of Human-Centered Design

Ask Questions

Source

You can grasp this concept if you understand how Search Engine Optimization works. When SEO content is written, it is definitely optimized for the search engine but firstly and most importantly, it is optimized for human beings who will eventually read it. Every time SEO content is written, a writer needs to ask themselves. “Is this relevant to the reader?”

What sets HCD apart from other design approaches is that it forces you to take a bottom-up approach. Instead of building a solution that you think people may like, you build a solution you know people will love. That begins when you start by asking the right questions and aligning the needs of your customers with your business goals. Asking questions forms the ‘Inspiration’ phase of HCD and requires understanding not only what people want but also what they need.

A great example of this phase is the story behind how Kellogg’s cornflakes came to be. Kellog, a broom salesman, was looking for an alternative to bread for his brother’s hospital patients and ended up accidentally leaving a pot of boiled wheat overnight which turned into crispy flakes when rolled.

Be prepared for field testing

An essential element of every design phase is prototyping or ideation. Market research is definitely crucial for most products but when taking the HCD approach, it is decidedly mandatory. You must get your prototype out to real people who can use it and give you their unbiased feedback.

Continuing where we left off with the Kellog story, the former salesman experimented with corn for several years while testing his recipe on his brother’s patients and perfected it.

Collaborate with your team

Follow an extroverted design process that enables shared ownership of ideas. This also helps propel the solution forward by forcing you to communicate your ideas and testing its viability. Human-centered design is, by and large, a team effort when it comes to the implementation phase. By taking collective ownership of an idea, everyone on the team is able to feed off of each other which ends up creating a brilliant solution.

Some design elements that you can incorporate while taking the HCD approach

The copy needs to empathize with people

Hire a copywriter who has a fundamental understanding of how a solution is aimed at improving the quality of human life. Focus on what the product can do for people rather than shining a light only on its features.

Use real people’s photograph in the marketing campaign

Since human-centered design is all about focusing on human context, it may be prudent to photograph the people who have tested your solution and using them as the face of the campaign rather than having a celebrity endorse it.

Study the local events to come up with the perfect solution

When creating a solution, you should also keep the environment in mind. Studying and researching local events can help you answer some basic questions — ‘Are people wary of technology?’, ‘Given the weather, will this solution be viable?’, ‘What kind of technology are people exposed to?’ — all of which can inspire an idea.

So, does human-centered design mean that you oversimplify technology?

Most literature on the internet will have you believe that a technology-first approach is a big No-No when it comes to HCD. But, that can lead to a potentially bad design. For instance, since the motor vehicle was invented, people have always associated a louder noise with a better motor. However, noise isn’t really a human-centric concept. The ‘Save’ button on Microsoft Office Suite still pays homage to the floppy disk which has not been in use since the early 2000s. Are these examples of bad design then? No. These are nuances of human-centered design that must not be overlooked. Along with taking a human-centric approach, you must also take into account how human beings interact with technology. It is imperative to not shove a solution that puts the user at unease or in unfamiliar territory.

The old adage may hold some value here — ‘Don’t fix what’s not broken.’

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