HCD in NFP
Human-centered Design in Non-for-profit
As designers, we are constantly interested in serving others. We’ve developed an entirely new, human-centered way of thinking and working in our profession that proves this. Human-centered design (HCD) is all about building a deep connection with the people you’re designing for. Once knowledge is gathered about the client, generating ideas and building prototypes are the next step in a HCD process. Sharing what you’ve designed with your clients and the stakeholders is extremely important all throughout the process. It is key to keep the users and consumers, the humans at the heart of the design process from start to finish.
The following article, Why Human-Centered Design Matters by Dave Thomsen speaks to this concept of HCD. Along with this article, I wanted to share some insight on non-for-profit organizations I received from an interview I recently conducted with the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Chief Marketing Officer, Corinne Rusch-Drutz. Both the article and interview I conducted outline the importance of the HCD process, that it starts with the people you’re designing for and ends with new solutions that are specifically tailored to suit their needs.
Dave Thomsen stresses the importance of the HCD process in his article. He explains that it places absolute priority on empathizing and understand others. Instead of focusing on temporary visual trends and styles, the process is geared towards genuinely understanding the needs of others and creating solutions seamlessly suited to their problems. As well, during my interview with Corinne she constantly stressed that the users, the gallery goers were at the center of all design and marketing decisions. Working for a non-for-profit organization like the AGO, it generally serves a humanitarian need. As a government funded organization, profits made through ticket sales and fundraising are directly put back into the preservation of the gallery with the public’s needs in mind. Due to the fact that a significant amount of the AGO’s profits come from ticket sales and fundraising, human-centered design is an essential asset.
The AGO, relies heavily on their marketing department in order to “build relationship with AGO constituents, increasing support for the Gallery through the integration of communications and outreach, marketing, fundraising and government relations,” as Corinne explains. She goes on to give an example,
“Part of our 3 year strategic plan is to think about how we can amplify the gallery all year, through a campaign that is less about specific pieces or a specific artist and more about seeing yourself as a gallery goer, a lifestyle.”
At the end of the day, Corinne’s goal is to facilitate revenue growth and increase visitors for the AGO all while keeping the public, the people at the core of all decision making.
The goal is to constantly treat your audience not just as a consumer of our work, but as a co-creator. At the end of the day, you will know that your solution will be a success because you’ve kept the very people you’re looking to serve at the heart of the process!
