Human Centered Design
The methodology used to create amazing UX Design
“User experience is everything. It always has been, but it’s undervalued and underinvested in. If you don’t know user-centered design, study it. Hire people who know it”.
– Evan Williams, Co-Founder Twitter
Human Centered Design is the industry and ISO standard methodology for creating outstanding usability and user experience. It involves four primary activities: 1) Field studies- analyzing user needs and desires; 2) Interaction Design: Rapid wireframe prototyping of potential solutions and 3) User Testing your designs with users to gain design feedback. 4) Service Design- services from user needs to blueprinting and service delivery.
Definition:
Human-centered design is an iterative methodology for creating great experiences (or user experience “UX”). It is also employed to accomplish the activities that make up the innovation technique called Design Thinking. The international standards organization specifies Human-centered design for interactive systems in ISO standard 9241-210. Human-centered or Community-Centered Design means you put the recipient of your service or design at the center of your decision-making process by including them and giving them a voice, control, and access to your development process.
Human-centered design is about changing how you approach your product, service, or experience design. How? You involve stakeholders (including users!) early on in your requirements specification and throughout the design and development process. This helps you avoid failure caused by assuming you know what users want!
Organizing screens around how users think also helps your avoid the known problems inherent in making users follow designer intuitions or developer rules. Finally, testing to see if designs make sense to users, and if users can perceive and locate key interface controls can help you mitigate poor quality or lost business.
Agile or Lean UX teams use Human-centered design as a grounding mechanism to deliver good user experience. Human-centered design ultimately is about changing your organizational culture from Inside-Out to Outside-In. This means you approach UX design, development and business decisions from the customer’s perspective, needs, and behaviors– not your organization’s point of view.
See A Quick and Practical Intro to Human Centered Design
Benefits:
- Avoid poorly designed experiences, products, and services.
- Optimize for end-user needs, goals, and desires.
- Attain valuable insights for placing users at the core of the user experience.
- Reap the benefits of enhanced ROI through reduced development time and improved efficiency.
Methods we use:
Field Studies. Ethnography. Service Design. Interaction Design. Information Architecture. UI Design. Emotion Design. Usability Testing. Eyetracking.
See our Service Design Training
Deliverables:
- Insights gained from user needs research and user testing to inform the design process.
- Prototypes that explore new directions for your project.
- Guidance that facilitates organizational development and empowers self-sufficiency
Human Centered Design is where great experiences are born because it involves stakeholders (users) along the entire journey.
Ready to work with us?
Get in touch and see if we can help you with your next User Experience consulting project!
