HCD: always good?

Human centered design has become the key to successfully designed products or services. Numerous books and articles are nowadays devoted to describing this design process and highlighting its advantages. Designers and researchers have been seduced by the effectiveness of involving people in the design process. Given all the focus about the positive advantage of HCD, a question that is worth asking is: can human centered design lead to negative results? Is focusing on tailoring solutions to specific people based on their needs, desires and contexts always a good thing? Should we be concerned about HCD after all?

One concern is that satisfying a group of people 100% might improve things for them but will often harm or make the situation worse for another group. This might not necessarily mean direct harm but could mean that what works for some will or might not work for others. The implication is that by using HCD we find ourselves tailoring solutions to likes, dislikes and needs of different target groups instead of trying to look for common traits that could lead to a generic solution. Generic solutions, although not perfect, tend to save time and allow room for more creations to take place.

Another concern over human centered design is that it might lead to good products while impeding creativity and stepping out of the box. Products will be designed to function properly for people. They could be well designed to fit some constraints and adapted to the norms and traits of groups of people. The question is: aren’t we putting boundaries on design? Great design has been known to emerge from rule breaking and accepted practices. The product might not be liked initially or during the design process but it might be accepted and used at the end. Involving people in the design process might stop us from seeing what something could have become, the end result.

There is a great debate on whether human centered design fosters or impedes creativity. There might not be a right or wrong answer to the question but it is definitely worth looking at and investigating.

Hanae T.