Staying Centered: Possibilities of Human-Centered Design

Understanding the aspects of the design kit implemented at IDEO.org brings forward numerous areas where their human-centered design (HCD) approach could be applied. Simply put, the essence of human-centered design process is to start with the people we’re designing for and work our way to the final solution through subsequent iterations.

The term is believed to have been coined at Stanford’s d.school which thrives on innovations in design techniques that address social problems. In an interesting take on the subject, John Cary poses the question “What Is Design If Not Human-Centered?”. He looks at the alternatives or status quo as a mix of conceptual projects and design competitions, but says that these overlook the experiences and crucial insights of users themselves—and the incredible learning they provide. He goes on to state that students of human-centered design must see this practice, not as a set of consecutive steps but as a way of truly seeing the world—where listening to and learning from users informs and sometimes even trumps designers’ own instincts.

IDEO.org’s toolkit provides a mix of practical activities to help us, the prospective designers of innovative solutions, come up with ideas best suited for the target communities. To me, three aspects that stand out as general guidelines would be:

• Empathize: The idea of people at the center is to be limited not just through the inspiration phase but through each iterative phase within ideation and implementation as well.
• Iterate: Another aspect is to not cling on to any ideas. Only then are we able to model the product to suit the needs of our communities better. While this in no way implies losing an investment into an idea by jumping into something else midway, but it does encourage learning from failures and molding the solution to fix it. 
• Take Feedback: Once a solution has been implemented, the key to effective monitoring and evaluation is using feedback from the community itself. This would help fine-tune the solution to suit the users better and expose even the minutest shortcomings that would otherwise go unnoticed.

For instance, at a non-profit I co-founded in India, Project Reach Foundation, when we began integrating technology tools into rural immunization processes, my team and I went with our ideas to drive solutions into the rural community’s processes. Only after we opened ourselves to empathize and learn constantly from the villagers, the community health workers and the on-ground staff, did we actually put solutions in place that benefited them beyond our original target. We moved from cold-chain management and GPS tracking to something they valued more, which was doing away with cumbersome pen-paper maintenance of infant immunization records to mobile data collection tools provided by our team. This, along with reminders using interactive voice recordings in local languages, saved Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) precious hours and effort, as well as led to an over 40% increase in turnout at the vaccination drives in rural Gujarat.

Human-centered design has seeped into almost every innovative product, from our iPhones to the recent Proximity Button, a small wearable button designed by the U.K.'s Mettle Studios for Proximity Care, created for people living with dementia (and their caregivers). This simple wearable does only one thing: it warns caregivers when a person with dementia wanders out of a designated safe zone.

More often than not, we tend to forget the people and focus more on the product. The repercussions span not only to a failed product, an unsuccessful venture or an enterprise in debt but go beyond when they are escalated to areas such as policymaking. A lot of nations tend to see their policymakers as being disconnected from the need of their people. So much so, that the National Intelligence Council recognizes the governance gap as a key game changer for the coming decade, especially with the advent of IT tools. These tools serve as double-edged swords, enabling citizens to mobilize their opinions about the government, on one hand, and allowing the government to monitor citizens more easily, on the other.

As a public policy student, I am curious to see the expansion of human-centered design into good governance practices. Lately, a take on the ways the government is trying to serve the people in United States caught my eye. From better veterans' services to the best way to cure cancer, a new movement inside the administration is asking: "What do the people want from us?”. The possibilities are endless and the applicability of this approach as citizen-centered design is an area worth exploring, don’t you think?