Human-centered design is a creative approach to problem-solving. It’s a process that starts with the people you’re designing for and ends with new solutions that are tailor made to suit their needs.
Human-centered design is all about building a deep empathy with the people you’re designing for; generating tons of ideas; building a bunch of prototypes; sharing what you’ve made with the people you’re designing for, and eventually putting your innovative new solution out in the world.
Observing user behaviour — Try to understand people through observing them. For example, if you’re designing a vacuum cleaner, watch people vacuum.
Putting yourself in the situation of the end-user — To understand what the user experience is really like; to feel what their users feel.
Source: http://www.designkit.org
In Unit 2 you should explicitly refer to human centred design when:
Investigating and defining the need for their design
When writing design briefs/ constraints & considerations so that you clearly define the user's specific needs.
When writing evaluation criteria
When caring out research that focuses on the end user
When making judgements or decisions about design choices.
When evaluating your final product.
Read this article and watch the video below:
Individual research tasks to be added to your folio:
1. Create a list of questions to answer that will help you understand more about the end user and how they might use your finished project.
These questions will need to be specific to the type of product/project being designed but for guidance:
Who will use it;
age
background,
demographical information
Physical details related to the products use;
the user's size
any specific special physical needs or issues
Saftey Issues and other ergonomic needs.
Cultural or religious needs
Lifestyle - specific ways of doing things
social
economic
interests based (sports, music ect)
Appeal
aesthetics
style
brand affiliation
ease of use
2. Observation
Go out and observe how similar products are being used by your client/target market and how these products meet the needs of the user.
Take photos.
Make videos.
Interview people.
Draw conclusions.