Human-centered design: User-friendly products that actually solve problems

The project team loved the app, but sales have been far below forecasts. After a lengthy and cost-intensive de­vel­op­ment period, many companies find out the hard way that they misjudged the needs and ex­pec­ta­tions of their users. Either they solved a problem which users didn’t see as a problem, or there were serious weak­ness­es in their im­ple­men­ta­tion.

Human-centered design minimizes un­cer­tain­ty in the de­vel­op­ment process by involving users in the creation of a new or improved product from the outset.

Human-centered design was in­tro­duced to improve product de­vel­op­ment and avoid errors in product ori­en­ta­tion. The term is defined in ISO 9241-210:2019.

The origins of the term "human-centered design" are unclear. However, the concept to con­sis­tent­ly focus product de­vel­op­ment on users from the outset has existed since the 1990s.

In the digital world, human-centered design has become in­creas­ing­ly wide­spread due to tough com­pe­ti­tion and budget con­straints. Companies can no longer afford to invest months into over­haul­ing a website that doesn’t lead to a sig­nif­i­cant­ly higher con­ver­sion rate after its launch. It’s not eco­nom­i­cal to launch a digital product which doesn’t sell because it’s too com­pli­cat­ed to use.

The term user-centered design is also used in web design and web de­vel­op­ment, often syn­ony­mous­ly with human-centered design. However, upon closer in­spec­tion, there are subtle dif­fer­ences between the two concepts. While user-centered design focuses on the specific future user, human-centered design also in­cor­po­rates other stake­hold­ers who interact with the ap­pli­ca­tion or product. For example, when designing an app for couriers, delivery drivers should be surveyed, alongside the re­cip­i­ents of packages. Employees who process and evaluate the app data in the for­ward­ing company should also be asked for their input. When creating a gaming app for children, parents or guardians should be involved.

User Ex­pe­ri­ence Design is a similar term. Here too, the aim is to improve the user ex­pe­ri­ence, make the product ex­pe­ri­ence more pleasant, and design a more intuitive ap­pli­ca­tion. However, the measures only start after the project team has already outlined the product. Human-centered design takes a different approach because users are involved in the product de­vel­op­ment phase.

Design thinking is another concept similar to human-centered design. In both cases, the focus is on the user and the developer com­mu­ni­cates with the potential users from the outset. Pro­to­types are used for iterative im­prove­ments. However, while human-centered design focuses on usability and the user ex­pe­ri­ence, design thinking is more likely to be employed when de­vel­op­ing entirely new creative products. The method is designed to question existing solutions and develop in­no­va­tions.

In the 2019 version, the ISO standard lists six prin­ci­ples of human-centered design:

1. Design is based on an explicit un­der­stand­ing of users, tasks, and en­vi­ron­ment: De­vel­op­ers should not only un­der­stand the users, but also why and how they want to use the product and the en­vi­ron­ment in which it will be used.
2. Users are involved through­out the entire design and de­vel­op­ment process: Potential users are involved con­tin­u­ous­ly in the product de­vel­op­ment process. Instead of having them evaluate an idea and a prototype, the aim is to study their needs and integrate them directly in the product design. Field studies (ob­ser­va­tions) at the beginning of a project and user tests after com­ple­tion of a first product version are useful.
3. Design is driven and refined by user-centered eval­u­a­tion: User testing is an integral component of product de­vel­op­ment and shouldn’t just be left for the final stages of the product design. As soon as initial designs have been brought to paper, or basic mock-ups are available, user feedback should be in­cor­po­rat­ed.
4. The process is iterative: In many cases, users cannot clearly formulate what they need and which product they envision. Instead, the process must identify the optimal solution via feedback loops and through ongoing dialog. Agile methods are best suited to fulfill this principle.
5. The design addresses the entire user ex­pe­ri­ence: In the past, user ex­pe­ri­ence was often as­so­ci­at­ed with intuitive operation, but good user ex­pe­ri­ence is more than that. The aim should be to make it as simple and pleasant as possible, evoke positive emotions and make users want to use the app re­peat­ed­ly.
6. The design team includes mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary skills and per­spec­tives: De­vel­op­ment teams should consist of experts from various dis­ci­plines. Blind spots can only be detected and human-centered design can only succeed if graphic designers, copy­writ­ers, pro­gram­mers, and usability experts come together and con­tribute their various per­spec­tives.

To examine the aspects that make up these phases let’s look at an example.

Company ABC wants to develop a mobile app for a major cor­po­ra­tion’s time-recording system. The mobile solution does not yet exist.

1. Un­der­stand­ing and de­scrib­ing the user context: Before the project team starts de­vel­op­ing the app, it will engage in dis­cus­sion with the future users, in this case, the cor­po­ra­tion’s employees. How has time recording been im­ple­ment­ed to date? Which problems occurred? What do they want from a mobile ap­pli­ca­tion? Staff report that the web interface was used for clocking in and out on mobile devices, but nav­i­ga­tion on a smart­phone was awkward and resulted in frequent errors. Many employees admit that they’re not very tech-savvy and emphasize that a user-friendly design is their priority.
2. Defining the user re­quire­ments: Besides the employees’ and managers’ specific wishes and re­quire­ments, budget and time con­straints must be taken into con­sid­er­a­tion. For instance, the cor­po­ra­tion wishes to retain its existing time recording system and sup­ple­ment it with a mobile component.
3. Drafting the design solutions: This is the state during which the actual pro­to­typ­ing process begins. The app interface is role-specific and recording time takes just three clicks. The func­tion­al­i­ty of the app has been reduced to include only the essential parts and ensure that less tech­ni­cal­ly competent employees can use the app.
4. Testing and eval­u­at­ing the solutions: Initial mock-ups are submitted to a group of employees. They are asked for feedback, which is in­te­grat­ed into the ongoing de­vel­op­ment. At each de­vel­op­ment step, feedback is obtained until the final ap­pli­ca­tion is completed.

There can be it­er­a­tions within in­di­vid­ual phases. The methods used to tackle the human-centered design process are not pre­scribed. Companies can use the methods for field research, idea de­vel­op­ment and product tests that have proven them­selves in practice.

Human-centered design offers many ad­van­tages for companies and users. It can be used to develop both physical and digital products. The latter benefit par­tic­u­lar­ly from the approach, as their success depends sig­nif­i­cant­ly on the in­ter­ac­tion with users.

• Improved pro­duc­tiv­i­ty: De­vel­op­ers can use their resources more ef­fec­tive­ly thanks to prompt feedback.
• Lower training costs: Ap­pli­ca­tions created in a user-oriented process are intuitive, reducing support and training costs after pub­li­ca­tion.
• Com­pet­i­tive advantage: Using this approach, companies can respond to the actual needs of users and solve user problems more ef­fec­tive­ly than com­peti­tors who only test and improve finished products.
• High customer sat­is­fac­tion: The process results in a better user ex­pe­ri­ence. Few other methods produce results of similar quality.
• Less stress: Regular user feedback reduces the economic risk, making the working at­mos­phere more relaxed with a positive effect on the project team’s cre­ativ­i­ty. It also reduces user stress because the final product solves a specific problem and is easy to use.

Some critics say that the radical focus on user needs restricts de­vel­op­er­s' per­spec­tives and prevents true tech­no­log­i­cal in­no­va­tion.

Similar arguments state that people’s lives and their chal­lenges are changing rapidly, and any ob­ser­va­tions and surveys are useless if a product is not developed rapidly. Otherwise, the problems a product aims to solve will already have changed before its release.

Another criticism is the approach’s global per­spec­tive. Critics say it overem­pha­sizes context and stake­hold­ers, rendering it un­suit­able for de­vel­op­ing tailored solutions for a specific target group.

The terms "user ex­pe­ri­ence" and "usability" are ubiq­ui­tous in web design and de­vel­op­ment. Companies that develop their products in ivory towers are a dying breed. Human-centered design con­sis­tent­ly in­cor­po­rates the user focus in product de­vel­op­ment from start to finish.

Many companies using agile methods already follow a human-centered design approach, even if they don’t ex­plic­it­ly call it that. In the future, the question will not be whether user focus should be part of design and de­vel­op­ment processes, but how human-centered design can be im­ple­ment­ed ef­fec­tive­ly in practice.