If you asked yourself before this question. And you don’t have a clear answer. Don’t go away. Here you will find a clear answer. And a useful comparison between Human-Centered Design and Design Thinking. Let’s begin:
What is HCD?
Human-centered Design is a creative approach for problem-solving which puts the human at the heart of this process. While designing solutions to improve people’s lives, is an important part of the human-centered design process.
“We spend a lot of time designing the bridge, but not enough time thinking about the people who are crossing it.”
Dr. Prabhjot Singh, Director of Systems Design at the Earth Institute
So, when you are Using HCD as a design approach puts your users first. Certainly, this will lead to creating useful and usable products and services. On the other hand, firms that invest in HCD create a culture of users that depend on keeping them at the heart of the product development process. we can help you to apply HCD inside your firm.
HCD importance
Above all, any business can use Design Thinking to find a solution that is capable of making money, But Human-Centered Design is used to ensure that the product serves the needs of the people when use it.
The benefits which will return from applying HCD:
- Improve Business Performance and increase.
- Returns on Investment (ROI).
- Enhanced User and Customer Experience.
- Make Stronger Research-Backed Business Decisions.
- Make Greater Competitive Advantage and innovation
- Improved Company Culture and Team Alignment
So let us go to the HCD phases.
HCD phases
The phases of HCD are categorized in various of ways. We will show the simple one for deep understanding.
- Empathize(it begin with the designers empathizing with the ‘users’ and finding solutions for their needs).
- Define (this is the phase in which you put yourself in your users’ physical lives to obtain a better understanding of who they are).
- Ideate (in this phase you synthesize the data and make sense of what you learned during the define phase).
- Prototype and test (in this phase you will select the greatest ideas and develop prototypes).
- Implement (in this is the phase you take your product to market and refine your business model).
After that, you understand the HCD its phases, and its importance. So, we will go to Design Thinking.
What is Design Thinking?
Design thinking is a process that aimed to solve problems from the perspective of the user. In other words, the Design thinking approach focuses on determining the barriers and limits that contribute to the existence of a problem.
Design Thinking relies on achieving results and solutions that are:
- Technically feasible: in the sense that they can be developed into functional products or processes.
- Economically viable: The business can afford to implement them.
- Desirable for the user: They meet a real human need.
Certainly, Design Thinking is an approach for creative problem solving that prioritizes the needs of customers above everything else.
So, it helps in engaging a user in a variety of chances such as:
- Experimenting and creating.
- A prototype model.
- Gathering user’s feedback.
- Redesigning the product utilizing innovative solutions.
Design Thinking may be used in a variety of fields, including architecture, engineering, and business. Design Thinking is a solution-based approach that focuses on finding solutions to issues. In the same vein, the Design Thinking approach focuses on identifying the obstacles and limitations that exist as a result of a problem.
Design thinking importance
Design thinking combines customer desirability with what is technologically feasible and economically viable. It also gives many opportunities for those who aren’t qualified as designers to use creative tools to solve a lot of problems/challenges.
Design Thinking importance can appear when it :
- meets the needs of the users.
- Helps in the detection and solve of unclear and difficult problems;
- Encourages individuals to create innovative solutions
- Enables firms to operate more quickly and efficiently.
Design Thinking phases
- Empathize: this phase is crucial for analyzing the problems where they arose. You should clearly understand the problems provided by the users and empathize with them.
- Define: in this phase define the user’s needs and detects possible solutions.
- Ideate: in this phase gather ideas for solving the problems.
- Prototype: in this phase, we develop a prototype by implementing the ideas which have in the ideate phase.
- Test: the final stage of design thinking is testing your prototype.
The common ground between design thinking and Human-Centered Design
Because they have so many similarities, Design Thinking and human-Centered Design can be easily combined. First and importantly, all approaches require user and stakeholder involvement at all stages of the development process — from the analysis until evaluation. Both approaches follow an iterative procedure. The Design Thinking process covers five phases (1)Empathize,(2) Define,(3) Ideate,(4) Prototype,(5) Test, But The Human-Centered Design, cover 5 phases (1) Empathize(2) Define,(3) Ideate,(4) Prototype and test,(5) Implement.
Although the names of phases little differ, the actions of the phases overlap with each other. The initial situation is critical in both processes, And each one includes problem analysis, the features of the users, and an analysis of the usage environment. Furthermore, both approaches use a prototype of the developed product to test the result with actual users.
How can you combine Design Thinking and Human-Centered Design?
Design Thinking is used for creating commercial products. It is commonly used to create market-based products and/or services, But Human-Centered Design takes it a step further by providing a mindset and tools to ensure that these products and/or services truly improve the lives of the end-users or beneficiaries, Together, they provide a process and mindset for developing self-sustaining solutions to some of the world’s most challenging problems.
Conclusion
What is HCD?
Human-centered design is a creative approach for problem-solving which puts the human at the heart of this process.
HCD importance
- Improve Business Performance and increase.
- Returns on Investment (ROI).
- Enhanced User and Customer Experience.
- Make Stronger Research-Backed Business Decisions.
- Make Greater Competitive Advantage and innovation.
- Improved Company Culture and Team Alignment.
HCD phases
- Empathize.
- Define.
- Ideate.
- Prototype and test.
- Implement.
What is design thinking?
Design thinking is a process that aimed to solve problems from the perspective of the user.
Design thinking importance:
- The primary goal is to meet the needs of the users.
- helps in the detection and solve of unclear and difficult problems.
- Encourages individuals to create innovative solutions.
- Allows organizations to function more efficiently and quickly.
Design thinking phases:
- Empathize.
- Define.
- Ideate.
- Prototype.
- test.
References:
- Interaction design foundation.
- IDEO’s Human-Centered Design Toolkit.
- UK Design Council’s Double Diamond.
- Stanford d.School, you can begin with Design Thinking.
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