Design thinking and human-centered design (HCD)

Design thinking is a methodology that was established in the late 60s to help businesses with creative problem-solving, and only became well known with the awareness of UX through IDEO, a global design company, during the early 90s. IDEO designed the first manufacturable mouse for Apple and was one of the market leaders in advancing HCD. According to IDEO, design thinking consists of five steps to creating anything of value (note that the focus is on anything of value, not necessarily a digital product, such as a website or mobile app).

  1. Empathize: Understand the users you are designing a product or service for.
  2. Define: From the research, define the user's needs.
  3. Ideate: Generate as many ideas as possible to encourage innovation to solve the problem.
  4. Prototype: Create a prototype to illustrate and test the idea.
  5. Test: Use the prototype to test the idea with real users.

Design thinking is a methodology used on which to base UCD principles (which we'll discuss in more detail in the following section) and assist in the iterative process to problem solve and ensure the user's needs are met. IDEO has also developed useful toolkits to simplify design thinking in which one is to create a memorable acronym for HCD that is hear, create, and deliver:

  1. Hear: It focuses on the people you're creating the solution for. What is it that the user desires? Is the proposed solution focusing on the needs of the user?
  2. Create: It relates to the long-term benefits for the business. Is the solution that's being built for the user a viable option that's not just profitable but also a sustainable business model?
    1. Deliver: It relates to technology and the business' operational strength to create the solution. Does the solution strengthen the company's core operational capabilities as well as advance other areas of the company that are not as developed?

The focus is always on human-centered innovation to create practical and workable solutions for the user. These solutions are not limited to a digital product, such as a website or mobile app, but can be applied to any possible product the user interacts with, such as a bicycle, chair, or hairdryer. The terms design thinking, HCD, and UCD are used interchangeably in the industry and are commonly seen as the same thing. Even though they have some major overlapping similarities, they are indeed different. We've already discussed design thinking, so let’s look at the definition of HCD before we dive into the UCD process.

Human-centered design (HCD) is an approach to interactive systems development that aims to make systems usable and useful by focusing on the users and their needs and requirements, and by applying human factors/ergonomics, usability knowledge, and techniques. This approach enhances effectiveness and efficiency; improves human well-being, user satisfaction, accessibility, and sustainability; and counteracts possible adverse effects of use on human health, safety, and performance. ISO 9241-210:2010(E)

HCD is the standard of usability based on the universal characteristics of people in general, while UCD is more focused on a segment of people and their personality traits and unique behavior.

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