Human centered design is the ideal of gaining feedback to improve a design or product. It takes into account the user preference and the perspectives of different people. So, how do we determine what aspects make up a human centered design? - And who conducts these practices? Well, in the Field Guide to Human Centered Design the first rule of "embracing human centered design means believing that all problems even the seemingly intractable ones like poverty, gender equality, and clean water, are solvable"(IDEO). Believing that things that may seem impossible are solvable instills motivation. Wanting to please everyone, although most likely impossible, is the initial goal in human centered design.
The history of this field guide was created by decades of services, experiences, and social enterprises that have been analyzed and molded into the guide it is today. The guide is created my IDEO, an international design and consulting firm founded in Palo Alto, California in 1991. The company focuses on consumer experiences and is dedicated to to improving the lives of poor and less fortunate communities.
A great deal of it is based on psychology and implemented into different fields like medicine, teaching, technology, and almost every aspect of life. The guide deals with a lot of different methods on how to tackle the challenges of approaching people. It grows from the idea of inspiration into framing a mindset to prepare with research for an interview that is filled with tips and advice on how to conduct one.
Moving forward you start to think, well WHY is this important?
The Field Guide believes that "when you understand the people you're trying to reach- and then design from their perspective- not only will you arrive at unexpected answers, but you'll come up with ideas that they'll embrace"(IDEO). I think that a great deal of work has been ignored and shut down just because of some flaws that could have easily been avoided if a little bit of time was taken in the process of development to gain feedback.
IDEO's design process is used when creating new innovations and products, from designing a toothbrush for kids to creating new medical devices. The process is applicable to many different areas of study which makes its universal accessibility the main reason why it should always be considered. Their design process consists of six phases or steps :
1. Observation - This first phase is about learning and being open to creative possibilities because the overall goal is to understand your audience. Similar to the exercise done in class, they also use the idea of identifying patterns in behavior, pain points, and places where a user may have difficulty.
2. Ideation - This step is all about diversity and brainstorming ideas with your group. This brings to light a mixture of individual ideas and opinions that may not always be the same.
3. Rapid Prototyping - The third step is all about making different quick samples of what you are building out of low quality things like cardboard and paper.
4. User Feedback - This may be the most important step because you are hearing back from actual people and getting to phase user experience hands on.
5. Iteration - After getting back feedback you can use that to make changes to your design.
6. Implementation - The final step is validating your work and getting out into the real world.
Using these steps helps create valuable and useful products, rather than having to repeat iterations and modifications over and over because human factors and feedback were not considered.
Link to the Field Guide: