Creating a human design-centred mindset

- In our view human-centered design is not just about processes, tools, and methods, it's also about adopting the right mindset. It all starts with designing for your users. So, how might you make sure you are designing for your users? This is probably the most important thing to keep in mind. It's all about understanding their needs and the wider context in which they'll use the service and making sure you articulate and test your own assumptions. Because at the end of the day, you are not living the life that your client lives. We acknowledge that you might have decades of experience and expertise in your area and also know your clients very well. But sometimes being not close to your clients can mean that you walk into a problem space with more assumptions. Therefore it is important that you understand the real problem they need solutions to in order to avoid spending time solving the wrong problem. Next, let us look at an example of testing our assumptions early on in order to avoid creating the wrong solution. How do we make sure we really understand what they need versus what they say they want.

By understanding their context, immersing ourselves into their lives and environment. This is a case study of John who is visually impaired. The assumed solution was to design a button to help John get help in case of emergency. After visiting his environment, his home, we saw that he already had a system for organizing his life. We quickly realized that the emergency button would not be the right solution as John can just as easily find and use his phone as he could a new emergency button. In this observation research, we managed to save the government from investing in the wrong solution. Take a moment to look at the example on this slide.

Let us understand two different types of needs when designing services and products. Number one, emotional needs, these are the feelings felt as the result of someone facing a situation in their lives. Number two, are the practical needs, these are the functional things that people need to access or benefit from the service. Both types of needs are closely related, but they're also very different.

Practical needs exist within a set of constraints that are dependent of the policies designed around the event whether that be social, economic, or environmental. If this government policy was to change, then so would the functional needs in this space. Based on the earlier example of someone moving into retirement, it is essential to understand the emotional needs if we want to redefine what functional needs look like in the future. Continue to the next video to learn more about the different types of research.

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