Human-Centered Design and its Use in the Lab
Few would argue that the Lab has remained exactly the same since the time of its creation as Reese News back in 2009. With time and experience in the Chapel Hill community, we have honed our focus to adapt to the needs of our clients and audiences. One element of our process that has remained and even gained importance over the years, however, is our use of human-centered design practices.
Like UX design, human-centered design revolves around the needs and wants of the product user. What sets human-centered design apart, however, is that it begins with real-world information from real people to create a tailored product design that will solve demonstrated needs, while UX design focuses on how to make the specific product work as well as possible for those who will be using it. Human-centered design practices include input from the target audience throughout the entirety of the design process.
According to Harvard Business School Online’s Business Insights Blog, the human-centered design process includes three separate steps: inspiration, ideation, and implementation. Throughout each step, input from real users is implemented to make sure the process is as beneficial to the future audience as possible.
In the first step, inspiration, designers get feedback from users to discover firsthand what their audience actually wants, rather than implementing what they think users will want. The key concept in this step is empathy. Designers must be able to relate to the needs of the users as well as put real-world data front and center in the design process. In this way, products can be highly personalized rather than catering to more general demographics.
The second step is ideation. In this step of the process, designers take the information they have gathered and brainstorm as many ideas as possible to fulfill the demonstrated needs. From there, designers put together prototypes. The most important aspect of this step is to keep the needs of the users in mind. For this reason, even after making initial prototypes, designers continue to get feedback from users by running tests and listening to concerns.
The final step of the process is implementation. In this step, the design is finally brought to market. Using data already collected, this step is also an opportunity to decide what marketing strategies will be most effective for the target audience. Although this is the last step for this design, the process never truly ends as data continues to be taken from the public to see how audiences are changing. Designs can continue to adapt to users’ wants and needs.
Here at the Lab, we keep the human-centered design process in mind with each of our projects. Because each one is tailored to a specific client, we know from the beginning who our audience will be and why they need the product we are creating. One example of this can be found in our current project, I AM BLANK. Myla Athitang, innovation fellow and project manager for I AM BLANK, describes the project as “an educational journey venturing through a variety of career paths and professions” that “offers a fun learning experience for students wanting to delve into their desired career interests.” Because I AM BLANK is rooted in the needs and wants of the students who will use it, the design will go through multiple stages of user testing to ensure the experience will provide the desired outcomes.
In our projects, we aim to improve our client's satisfaction by making our designs as appealing to their target audiences as possible, like through user testing with our prototypes. In this way, our goal is always to create meaningful products that users actually want and will use.
