INTRO TO HUMAN-

CENTERED
DESIGN
Dr. Will Kurlinkus
WHAT IS GOOD
DESIGN
ACCORDING TO
OUR READINGS?
1. Give me a one sentence design motto from each
2. Give me an example that illustrates this from each
3. Tell me about a design that violates this motto
 Resolving Problems
in the World through
Design
“There is the capitalist approach
(make it bigger), the technocratic one
(make it better), the ‘revolutionary’
solution (portray the problem as an
example of an exploitative system)
and the pre-industrial romantic fallacy
(don’t use it; maybe it will go away by
itself.) We propose a fifth alternative
response: Let’s invent a different
answer” (27).
—Victor Papanek & James Hennessey

Designs are underdetermined by god terms like “efficiency,” “cost,” “innovation.”

There are innumerous equally efficient, cost-effective, and innovative options.
What is design?
■ Design: the act of transforming the world from its current state
into a desired one.
■ Designer-centered design: creating something with the designer’s
expertise in mind. Beautiful architecture and art. (see the juicy
salif)
■ User-centered design: creating something by thinking carefully
about and observing how users (though sometimes stereotypical

Metis: The expertise of users.

users) use a product. Use is the goal—but also the blinder.
■ Participatory/co-design: collaborating directly with users, co-
creating with them.
■ Human-centered design: thinking and learning about the
messiness of users—similar to user-centered design but a better
life is the goal.
■ Design Activism: “Creating a counter-narrative aimed at
generating and balancing positive social, institutional,
environmental and/or economic change” (Alastair Fuad-Luke).
Thinking designing for disability, designing for aging, designing for
gender equity.
DESIGNER
CENTRIC
DESIGN
HOW WOULD
YOU
REDESIGN?
The problem of design expertise: “Much of design is
done by engineers who are experts in technology but
limited in their understanding of people. ‘We are
people ourselves,’ they think, ‘so we understand
people.’” -Donald Norman
USER-CENTERED DESIGN
HUMAN-
CENTERED
DESIGN
Human-Centered Design:
■ How do we design for
humans as they exist?
■ What does it mean for
humans to be understood
as humans rather than
users?
Cultural Probes

■ What design type are they?

■ “Understanding the local cultures was necessary so that our
designs wouldn’t seem irrelevant or arrogant, but we didn’t
want the groups to constrain our designs unduly by focusing
on needs or desires they already understood.”
■ “Moving beyond a view of older people as needy or nice has
allowed us to view them in new ways, opening new
opportunities for design.”
■ “The probes were not designed to be analyzed, nor did we
summarize what they revealed about the sites as an explicit
stage in the process. Rather, the design proposals we
produced reflected what we learned from the materials.”
 HOW WOULD YOU REDESIGN
THE AIR TRAVEL EXPERIENCE?
WHAT MAKES A GOOD OR BAD
WEBSITE ACCORDING TO THESE
VALUES?