Human Centered Design Video Games

Human Centered Design. Learn 6 Phases of the Human Centered Design Process.

Human Centered Design

Do you remember the most famous Quote from Steve Jobs

"Design is not just what it looks like and how it feels. Design is how it works."

Now what does it mean?
A Product which looks sophisticated, elegant but difficult to use doesn't make your life easier. However, Design is about how one relates to the product and finds it easier to be able to use it.

Good design is made by keeping User in mind and prioritizing the 'Ease of Use' factor. So, Just creating a Beautiful Product doesn't work anymore. In fact, a Good Design starts with considering needs of human beings and designing the solution tailored to their individual needs.

Moreover, a good design is about building empathy with the individuals you're designing for.

Ok! So In this article we will understand more about the Human Centered Design and Cover

What is human centered design
Human Centered Design vs User Centered Design vs Design Thinking
6 Phases of Human centered design Process
Principles of Human Centered Design
Examples

Lets Begin!

What is human centered design?

Human-centered design (HCD) is a problem-solving approach that considers human perspective throughout the phases of the design process.

Popularized by IDEO.org , Human-centered design In other words, is a framework that develops solutions to problems by including human perspective in the entire problem-solving process.

HCD deeply focuses on Needs, problems, emotions and behaviors of People. And this essentially means observing the problem within the context, and brainstorming the ideas to solve the problem. And then developing, and implementing the solution- All of this is done by placing the 'Human' at the centerof the problem-solvingdesign process.

Philosophy of human centered Design says

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

Human Centered Design majorly consists of three phases. And in the coming section we will drill it down further to learn about the Human Centered Design Process.

Human Centered Design Phases

Inspiration Phase- Immerse yourself into the life of people you're designing for, in order to deeply understand their needs.
Ideation Phase- Interpret what you have learnt, Identify solutions and Prototype potential solutions.
Implementation Phase- you'll bring your solution to life, and finally bring it to the market.
Keeping the people at the heart of the Design process will ensure Success of the Designed Product.

Human Centered Design IDEO

From Designing a medical device for nurses to enter data during a specific procedure. To Designing a Toothbrush with Squish gripper for children.

Design Firm IDEO has been using Human-Centered Design for decades to create products, services, experiences, by keeping people's lives and desires at the core.

Human Centered Design is a framework that develops solutions by

Observing user behavior (in the context of use) For example, if you're designing a washing machine, observe people while they are using the washing machine.
Putting yourself in the situation of end-user: It helps you to learn about user experience. You get to feel what their users feel.

Human Centered Design vs User Centered Design

Just like me, terms 'User-Centered Design' 'Human-Centered Design' and 'Design Thinking', must have confused you as well. And must have got you thinking, Do they represent the same thing? Or Do they represent Distinct Processes.

Human Centered vs User Centered Design

Yes! The terms represents the same Process of finding solutions for User Problems by focusing on the User Needs at each stage of Design Process.

Some might argue about the slight differences between the origin of these terms. However, There is more commonality among these methods than slight differences.

And though the terms 'human' and 'user' are used separately sometimes in the design process, they are however related to one another. Or In other words, 'Two Sides of the same coin'. In fact, Both focuses on providing the best possible solution to the end user or human.

Human Centered Design Vs Design Thinking

Popularized by Stanford's d.school,Design Thinking is a 5 Stage non linear processto create solutions for User Problems.Human-Centered Design is a mindset that overlays design thinking to ensure that the products are actually relevant and beneficial for the people they are intended to serve.
Design Thinking process
Furthermore, User-Centered Design, Human-Centered Design and Design Thinking work on the same principle of Empathizing with users to understand them.

For example, If you are designing a Washing Machine, you use 5 stages of Design Thinking to build it and then Apply Human-Centered Design on top of this. And this ensures that the product serves the needs of the people using the Washing Machine.

In other word, Human-Centered Design provides a mindset to ensure that the products and services designed actually improves the lives of the end-users. Infact when used together, you get the process and mindset to solve wicked challenges.

Phases of Human Centered Design Process

Human-centered design is all about developing empathy for the people you're designing for; understanding their problems; generating lots and lots of ideas to solve the problem; building a bunch of prototypes; testing with the people you're designing for; and finally putting out the solution into the world.

Lets expand the phases Human Centered Design Process and discuss in details

1.Observe with Empathy

You need to understand the problems you will be solving and to do that you must build empathy to learn who they are and whats important to them. Building Empathy is about developing understanding about what & why do the users feel, do, think and say so, their needs, goals, problems.

Observe Users by Building Empathy, by stepping into their shoes and by observing, empathizing and engaging with them, basically immersing yourself into their world which will help you to dig deeper and find out more about their concern areas.

2. Define

Define stage is about synthesizing the insights gathered to discover common patters and connections. Leverage the information gathered and organize to make sense of it. This step helps set up the rest of the process.

Moreover, Define stage helps to define problem statement. It is a concise description of the problem that has to be addressed by the Design Team. A concise and well-defined problem statement helps the Design Team to understand the problem and acts as a guide in developing solution.

3. Ideate

Ideation Stage is about generating lots and lots of ideas. It challenges you to think out of the box, and explore wild ideas which can solve the Human Centered Design Problem.

Ideation involves Divergent and convergent thinking. It represents a process of"going wide" at first in terms of generating radical ideas in terms of quantity and diversity, and then you will pick themost critical idea that is most likely to solve the design problem and build it into a Prototype to test with users.

4. Rapid Prototyping

Rapid Prototyping quickly combines – Ideation, prototyping, and testing, to help design Teams to solve Design Problems, by quickly discovering and validating their most critical ideas. The genius lies in how quickly the Prototype is Iterated." The Quicker The Better"

Designers use Rapid Prototyping as a quick and cost-effective method to quickly build a prototype or a section of a prototype that they want to validate. Prototype is then shown to users, teammates and all the relevant stakeholders for Feedback. Relevant Iterations are made based on this.

5.Test

The next step is to go out and test the prototype with end users to gather feedback on it. This feedback will form the basis for further iterations and refinement. You must learn about how they feel and think about it. Learn how they interact with the prototype. Pay attention on the User interactions.

6. Implement

So, After validating the solution with the end-user, it's time to get your idea out into the world.
It is however important to keep on revisiting the Phases and repeating process. Continue to observe users, and use their feedback to direct your future solutions.

5 Principles of Human Centered Design

Principle 1 – Great Design is based on observing real human

In order to create effective solutions, you have to observe and understand the challenges that real people encounter in their lives.

Moreover, it is important to understand their behaviors, thoughts (through cognitive empathy) and emotions (through emotional empathy). And this helps in creating solutions that benefits people's lives.

Principle 2- Create Endless Possibilities to Choose from

In order to develop a solution, You need to first come up with endless ideas to choose from. When coming up with ideas, the first idea won't always be the best. To find effective, innovative solutions, we need to create a pool of endless possible solutions. And then examine and select from it.

Principle 3- Great Design Comes from Desire to Create Real Outcomes

Creating something that looks elegant and seems fresh, exciting doesn't work. Furthermore, If solutions don't fall on the Parameters of solving User Problems effectively and efficiently, then the design will not be accepted by the end users.

Great design understands this and considers how to measure and monitor a Good Solution.

Principle 4- Great Design is Iterative

Good Design is based on a continuous learning process. Infact, it never really ends. Keep on learning from the end users, observe their experiences, and the challenges. And uses these learnings to further refine and evolve the solution.

Some Examples

Healthcare with IDEO

There are a lot of challenges and opportunities in the field of healthcare. And Design Thinking Firm IDEO focuses on applyinghuman-centered Design approach into Healthcare. The approach of Design Thinking in healthcare has huge potential to find innovative and far-reaching solutions.

More than 50 million people in the world suffer from schizophrenia however less than half of them get any treatment. Moro ever, symptoms are such that medication can't treat easily treat. Some symptoms includes social anxiety, isolation and lack of motivation.

And People are likely to suffer more if not treated well on time. In order to address the problem, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) approached IDEO todevelop a tool to improve the quality of life of Schizophrenia people and toalleviate hard-to-treat symptoms.

IDEO Design Thinking Example — PRIME APP | IDEO

Design Thinking for Schizophrenia Care

Whiledesigning for schizophrenia Care, IDEO applied the Design Thinking approach. IDEO Design Researcher Silvia Vergani had a meeting with Danielle Schlosser from UCSF.

Silvia understood the problem First by asking questions from Danielle. Infact, Danielle was surprised by the approach of IDEO and said "The design researchers asked me so many questions that made me think differently about a problem I'd been thinking about for a really long time"

Empathy in HealthCare

IDEO started by defining the problem that it was trying to solve. Then, it gained deeper understanding of the user needs before moving toward solutions. This not only connected them with the people whom they were serving, but also inspired them to solve their challenges

Silvia conducted interviews with Schizophrenia patients and connected well by putting them on ease. Silvia took the human centered approach and saw the patient as a person to empathize with them.

PRIME APP | Design Thinking Example — PRIME APP | IDEO

And the collaboration between UCSF and IDEO led to the creation of an App- Prime. The app helps Schizophrenia people to achieve their goals and engage with others for support.

What makes this one of our Personal Favourite Design Thinking Examples is the aim and zeal of IDEO for improving the quality of life of Schizophrenia people.
Learn more directly from IDEO

UberEATS

Since its conception, UberEATS is on a mission 'To make eating well effortless for everyone, everywhere'.

Uber connects restaurants with customers from over 80 cities around the world. So, people get more options to eat. In fact, restaurants are also able to build their business by reaching out to more customers.
Additionally, delivery partners also gets another way to earn good money.

All of this has been possible is by building empathy with the customers. Uber has been able to address different needs which has enable them to create a delightful experience for everyone.

UberEATS | Design Thinking Example

Immersion

In order To deeply understand different markets where Uber is present, they physically visits the market to understand the food culture. Uber uses Immersion Technique of Empathy in Design Thinking to understand how people use the things we've designed.

Uber conducts The Walkabout Program as a part of Immersion initiatives. In this initiative, designers visit an UberEATS city to deeply understand the market needs and challenges faced there . They conduct interviews with delivery partners, restaurant owners and consumers. Indeed, it generates lot of insights that designers use to address user needs

On such insight generated was the pain of finding parking and locating entries to restaurants. And Uber designed a Driver App for drivers that provided step by step directions from restaurants for a smoother pickups.

Rapid Iteration

Uber designers test their prototypes with real users in the context of use, which includes delivery partners, restaurants and home of customers. In this way, they are continuously solving challenges like finding parking, delivering to large apartment buildings.

Uber, infact commonly uses A/B testing to test multiple versions of a feature which allows Uber to find the best performing design faster.
Click here and learn about more such examples where Organizations have used Human Centered Design Process to create efficient solutions.

Key-takeaway

Organizations across the world have been using the approach of Human Centered Design Process to solve wicked and complex problems. Moreover, HCD allows you to keep the people you are designing for, at the center of your focus and design

You can come up with the most innovative and best idea in the world. However, you cant understand what the real issue people are facing until you interact personally with people and empathize with them to learn what they truly need.

Having said that, it doesn't mean that the journey is going to be smooth. You have to embrace risk and keep on moving forward while exploring the problem and developing solutions. Infact, you might have to revisit the previous stages of the Human Centered Design Process to develop and deliver most efficient solution to the problem.

Thankyou for reading!
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Reading and Further References
https://bestgraz.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Field-Guide-to-Human-Centered-Design_IDEOorg.pdf
https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources
https://www.usertesting.com/blog/how-ideo-uses-customer-insights-to-design-innovative-products-users-love/
https://www.ideo.com/post/design-kit
https://www.designkit.org/human-centered-design
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5715100cf8baf3c79d443859/t/57278d9a8a65e2945ad67678/1462209948161/MadPow_HCD_Overview.pdf

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