Reflection | OpenIDEO & HCD
It is intriguing to think about human centered design in the context of an online space and community. I never really thought about the effects or repercussions that come with building and gathering an open platform to focus on a problem statement. I always thought about the design process as something more “narrow” in the sense that only a few people ideate and work on the scope of the problem, though of course this involves the rigorous work that is a large amount of primary and secondary research, conceptualizing user journeys with the help of user-tests etc. Thinking about Open IDEO and their successfully collaborative online approach, it merely seems like a more integrated, detailed version of the typical UX research journey in a weird way to me. You get a wide community actively willing to give input with their own ideas and unique experiences, which only harbors inclusive design. It is often a challenge for designers to build something which is highly inclusive with ease, and from my point of view, conducting HCD online could possibly help to change that.
With that being said, there is also the element of “empathy” which is mentioned and very clearly important in the inspiration phase of HCD. The question is whether or not conducting it online helps or hinders this element. On one hand, you get the experiences of such a wide community, sure to gain insight from those of various different backgrounds; perhaps some which may even be a part of your target audience. However, the space of an online community also means for a generalized or rather “too wide” of a view to truly be empathetic. It really depends on how it’s conducted/managed. So how different is it to manage a challenge online? Well, one clear difference is again related to the element of empathy, or arguably lack there of. How does a company manage a challenge online in a way that still allows the design to stay focused on solving the problem? Conducting a challenge regularly tends to be specific and focused, however online, this may well be very challenging. However, I still think the idea of HCD being conducted online nevertheless is still desirable in many ways, most specifically because you benefit a lot from the vast amount of backgrounds.
Fostering collaboration and safety in online spaces is always a challenge. I wish I had more expertise about the technical implementations of safety in online communities to give more insight as to how this can be achieved. It is super important to combine expertise, different ideas and contextual understanding in many different ways. As the designer/researcher/company or whatever, there is that obligation, that value to be inclusive in as many ways as possible. It only makes the product/solution stronger, and this only benefits the other end, that is the user/audience.
