User-centered Design vs Human-centered Design
One thing I love about design is how it evolves, the way new concepts, new terms, new tools, and new approaches to solve problems are formed. This is a good thing, but I am a bit skeptical about how good it really is sometimes..
When it comes to product design, there is a lot of information on the internet but (bummer), there is also a lot of misinformation, so you have to be very careful as to which you pick up. It is especially hard to figure out which is which with everyday concepts that seem so familiar it may not occur to you that the meaning isn’t all too clear. Take ‘user centered’ and ‘human centered’ for example. Is there a difference?
Let’s find out.
I like to believe I am a free thinker and I hope you are too, so I’ll tell a short story. Once upon a time, in some far away lands (definitely some places on earth), some selfless humans called designers were dedicated to finding the needs of their users and solving them through a user-centered process. This process involved:
- Understanding the user and context of use
- Specifying user and business requirements
- Creating design solutions
- Evaluating effectiveness
The designers were creative, selfless (again) and dedicated but that wasn’t enough. They also wanted to be more in tune with their users. As we know, empathy is an important part of the job. So the designers thought to themselves, ‘who exactly are our users?’
An important part of design is understanding and empathizing with the users of your product. But seeing and referring to these users as just “users” felt like they were just another component of the system. It isn’t possible to know the name of every person that uses a product but it’s possible to refer to them in a way that resonates better with who they are. So these designers came up with an evolved term, “Human centered design”, which humanizes the product user. .
Disclaimer: this is not the exact story, this story is just to give you an idea
What does this mean?
This means the terms user centered design and human centered design are basically the same thing. Human centered design is just an updated and more empathic name for user centered design ( although some people still refer to it as user centered design).
Hook
Before writing this, I went through quite a lot of materials with different meanings of these terms, the two terms were described as slightly different in some of these materials. Here’s why: (this is where free thinking comes in)
User centered design is mostly described as a methodology that seeks to identify and solve the needs of specific target users or user group. On the other hand,
Human centered design is described as an inclusive methodology that sees all humans as its target users and seeks to create solutions to cater to all human needs. I mean, this isn’t a bad definition because it mostly seeks to include all human basic and special needs in the development process. The issue I see here is the same issue our earlier mentioned selfless designers noticed, the users in the user centered design approach are not really viewed as real life people with different needs, so basically their different needs aren’t catered for. When you put real life people at the center of your process, you tend to understand better who they are, their different needs as human beings and this is where inclusivity comes in.
This brings me to my definition of Human centered design
What is Human centered Design (HCD)?
Human centered design, also called people centered design or user centered design, is a problem-solving methodology that puts real users at the center of its process and seeks to tailor solutions that cater to their different needs in a simple way. Here, your “users” are seen as real people not just another component, engaging directly with these people is an important part of HCD. The HCD approach seeks to deeply understand the user’s needs, behaviors, wants and problems they might face. HCD is characterized by the same process of user centered design;
Please note that this is not a linear process, each stage is open to iteration regardless of what current stage the development is at.
When to use Human centered design?
It’s said that the HCD approach is best used when improving an existing product.
HCD, just like design thinking, is an iterative process that focuses on understanding and providing the best solution to the needs of their users. Every designer has their own design process which they follow, I believe HCD is a good approach to complement your design process.
Key takeaways
- Human centered design is an updated name of user centered design that seeks to see the “users” as real life people
- HCD is centered around real people, engaging with the people targeted to use a product is an important part
- There are a lot of new terms created, don’t get confused, some are things you’re already familiar with, just a different name (imagine how I felt when I noticed experiential designer was about the same thing as user experience designer. Someone just got bored and created a new name).
Some resources:
What is Human centered design? (Read article)
What is Human centered design? ( Watch video )
Human centered design (Read article)
