What are the benefits of Human Centred Design (HCD) over traditional design approaches?

Getting Started

If you’re interested in designing products or services that truly meet the needs of your users, then learning about Human Centred Design (HCD) is essential.

HCD is a design approach that puts the user at the centre of the design process, ensuring that the end product is both useful and usable.

This approach is perfect for anyone who wants to create products or services that are tailored to the needs of their users.

How To

1. Start by identifying your target audience and their needs.
2. Conduct research to gain insights into your users’ behaviours, preferences, and pain points.
3. Use this research to inform your design decisions, creating prototypes and testing them with real users.
4. Iterate on your designs based on user feedback, continually refining and improving your product or service.
5. Launch your final product, confident that it meets the needs of your users.

Best Practices

• Always put the user at the centre of the design process.
• Conduct thorough research to gain insights into user behaviours and preferences.
• Iterate on your designs based on user feedback.
• Test your prototypes with real users to ensure that they are both useful and usable.

Examples

Let’s imagine that you’re designing a new app for a ride-sharing company.

Using a traditional design approach, you might start by creating wireframes and designing the user interface.

However, with an HCD approach, you would begin by conducting research to learn about your users’ needs and behaviours.

You might discover that many users struggle to find their drivers in crowded areas, so you would design a feature that makes it easier for drivers and passengers to find each other.

You would then create prototypes and test them with real users, iterating on your designs based on their feedback.

Finally, you would launch your app, confident that it meets the needs of your users.