Can design really change the world?

Maybe. No. Yes. Well, let me explain. Who would I be if I gave away the answer to a headline in the first sentence? (Probably a designer and not a writer)

You may ask, what even is human centered design? IDEO (the leaders in this concept) define human centered design as a creative approach to problem-solving that starts with people and ends with innovative solutions that are tailor-made to suit their needs.

First, let’s take a step back. To most people design is just design. It’s something that makes your life easier (whether you realize it or not) but you don’t spend much time thinking on why design matters and makes things easier. To others, design can be distilled down to “that looks nice” and ends there. To me, design has mattered and been a large part of my life for the past 10 years. What once started as a high school elective class has become a career and passion (luckily I learned to evolve past Photoshop Elements so that helps too).

As I grew my skillset of design over the years I always felt something was missing. I saw the power design had in our everyday lives and appreciated the gift that effective design was. But I felt deep down that there had to be more to design than simply creating pretty things, using it for marketing materials and the occasional photoshop hobby of pranking my friends by putting their face on Lord of the Rings characters (another story for another time). I refuse to believe the most powerful thing beautiful design can do is offer a stark contrast on why comic sans sucks.

Turns out, I wasn’t the only one who thought of design as a powerful tool for our world. The good news is that there is a lot more to design than I originally thought.

Grad school in a pandemic

So fast forward to 2020, truly a year in and of itself, and I’m starting grad school in the middle of a pandemic to pursue the idea that design can change the world (no pressure, design, don’t blow it). But, the answer still remains, how can design change the world?

The how question is answered when reframing design in the mindset of centering it around one thing: humans. Us. You and me. When design serves a purpose for a need or problem we have, design becomes a powerful tool.

The question then becomes not how can human centered design change the world, but rather, in what ways has human centered design not changed the world?

A toothbrush, your music library and a burger condiment walk into a bar

Here are some stories.

The first is every kids favorite activity before bed: brushing their teeth. In 1996, Oral-B approached IDEO (the know-hows of HCD) to create a new toothbrush for kids. What was IDEO’s first step? Let’s watch kids brush their teeth. Which sounds really boring and useless since, you know, it’s an activity we all do everyday. But, IDEO observed it anyways. And guess what? They witnessed kids holding their toothbrush in a totally different manner than adults. What they found was adults have manual dexterity in their hands so they tend to use their fingers to turn the toothbrush in very fine movements. Where kids lack this dexterity ability and just grab the toothbrush in their fist. This one observation led to the reimagining of children toothbrushes (now with fat, squishy handles) and introduced a whole new product category to fill a need.

Another story uses an app many people use daily. Remember when you used to spend $1.99 on one song? Spotify successfully empathized with users struggle to pay for music and created a solution. It’s thanks to problem solving that we can all stream whatever music we want, whenever we want.

Last, but not least, a story we were all expecting. Ketchup. For decades we spent precious time slapping the bottom of an upside down glass bottle in hopes that our desperate hit of the palm would convince some thick-sweetened-tomato-juice to irk it’s way out in large globs onto our food. What you might not know is this solution of a plastic-inverted-bottle with a valve that opened while being squeezed came from a designer named Paul Brown. Brown’s patented valve, which allowed this bottle design to be possible, become immensely popular. Paul is now retired with his small fortune in Florida. Go Paul.

Those are just a few examples of everyday problems that have been solved utilizing a human-centered approach to design.

What does this mean for me?

I’m in week 5, approaching 6, of the CMCI Strategic Communication program at CU Boulder. My greatest challenge so far is also my greatest opportunity. How can I shift my thinking and strategy around this approach of human centered design? How can I learn to empathize with the user and create a design experience that focuses on their needs and problems?

Human centered design can change the world. It’s not about trying to design with the largest problems in mind. Sometimes it’s looking at the little things, like kids brushing their teeth, to find simple solutions to every day complexities. This is the power human centered design holds and the opportunity I have the ability to pursue.