People-centred development
The key idea of people-centred development is that people, as ‘end-users’ or customers, should be included in making or improving products and services. There are a number of tools and techniques available that allow researchers, designers, and engineers to work with people throughout the design and development process. There are four phases – or basic steps – of the people-centred development: <be>
- The first step is identification, where we define whose problems are actually being solved or who are the people in focus.
- In the second step, we carry out research and analyse their needs, using and combining different approaches, from the social sciences and humanities. In this way, we learn about people’s everyday experiences, practices and habits to find out what they need and want.
- The third step is interpretation.On the basis of research findings and in cooperation with the developers we prepare recommendations for design and development.
- The fourth step, design, development and testing, assures optimal use rexperience. In this phase, when we already have a prototype of the product or service, the central question is why and how - and if at all - the newly created solutions are relevant, important and meaningful to people.
The people-centred approach in design and development attempts to make a move from the mindset of engineers, designers and researchers to the specific needs and experiences of people. In this approach, people play an important part in the innovation, design, co-creation, and testing of solutions. The approach has been tried by numerous international companies. In the 1970s Xerox relied on a people-centred approach to improve the usability of their first photocopying machine; in the 1990s, Boeing employed ethnography to design the 787 Dreamliner aircraft, and Microsoft used it to improve their operating system. In the new millennium, several other companies, including Intel, Google, General Motors, Motorola, Nissan, and Volvo, started to hire social scientists and use people-centred approaches for the design and development of their products and services.
The Four Basic Steps
How does the people-centred approach function in practice? We divide it into four basic steps (see Figure 1). The first step is identification, where we define whose problems are actually being solved or who are the people in focus. In the second step, we carry out research and analyse their needs, using and combining different approaches, from interviews, focus groups and participant observation to surveys and experiments. In this way, we learn about people’s everyday experiences, practices and habits to find out what they need and want. In this process we do not perceive people as research subjects; instead, we treat them as colleagues and co-creators. We encourage them to creatively participate in decisions towards concrete solutions. The third step is interpretation. On the basis of research findings and in cooperation with the developers we prepare recommendations for improving design. The key idea of people-centred design and development is that people can - and should be - included in this part of the design process as well, not only acting as informants to the researchers, but as partners in the creative process.
There are a number of tools and techniques available that allow researchers, designers, and engineers to work with people throughout the design and development process. The fourth step, design, development and testing, assures optimal user experience. In this phase, when we already have a prototype of the product or service, the central question is why and how - and if at all - the newly created solutions are relevant, important and meaningful to people. We test the prototypes with people and use different techniques to assess their suitability, and overall people-friendliness. Based on the results, we prepare recommendations for improvements.
People-centred development is, as we show in this toolkit, an iterative process, which means that we continuously return to users of products or services to repeatedly ask questions that shed light on how our solution meets their needs and desires. In addition to listening attentively, researchers observe what co-creators do and how they interact with technologies or each other, researchers might even live with research participants for a while to learn about their daily habits and practices. They use techniques that transform research participants into active co-creators or collaborators, they let them take the lead and they learn from them to find out how new solutions, products and services, co-created with the people and for the people, could improve their lives.
Mapping the Approach
A useful tool and starting point for making sense of the various cross-cutting fields of study and the practices, research approaches and methods of people-centred development is Elizabeth Sanders’ “Map of Design Research” (Sanders 2006; 2008). In her map (see Figure 2), Sanders defines existing design research types/approaches as “zones” (large circles), “clusters” (larger bubbles within zones that signify the existence and support of professional organisations), and “bubbles” (smaller, not yet supported by professional organisations). They are positioned along two dimensions. The vertical dimension is defined by approach (research-led or design-led), whereas “the research-led perspective has the longest history and has been driven by applied psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, and engineers” (Sanders 2008:13). The horizontal dimension portrays the “mindsets of those who practice and teach design research” (Sanders 2006: 5).
In continuation (see Figure 3), Sanders overlays “People-Centered Innovation” [1] on the map of design research. As is evident from Figure 3, People-centred innovation (development) leans towards the participatory model, where “users” become partners (“active co-creators”) in the design/development process. She identifies three main research types: Applied Ethnography, Participatory Design, and Lead-User Innovation.
Sanders first presented the map in 2006 as a “cognitive collage” of design research that was still taking shape (Sanders 2006: 4). She subsequently altered some details (2008) and invited others to work on the map from their perspectives. From our standpoint - and taking into account the literature published in the 10 years after the first publication of Sanders’ map - we might also add to this overview the more recent and expanding field of Design Anthropology, placing it at the intersection of the People-Centred Innovation and User-Centred Design zones between Expert and Participatory Mindsets, leaning towards Research-Led approaches.
Another way of mapping design research is provided by Hanington’s (2010: 21) “Model of Design Research”, as taught at the Carnegie Mellon University (see Figure 4). Instead of aligning them along the specific models of research- or design led dimensions, this model integrates “methods and creative development through specific phases of exploratory, generative, and evaluative research and design”, whereby each phase is characterised “by approaches, while not limited by specific methods” (ibid.).
This model gives us a simple but efficient visual representation of a people-centred design and development process. We can see that a people-centred design project will develop through three interconnected phases, the exploratory, generative, and evaluative phase. In each phase, the design team chooses different approaches and methods to achieve set goals. In the following chapters, we dive into these phases in detail and our chapters broadly reflect these three major phases. However, as this toolkit is specifically intended to support the university-student-industry triangle in their joint people-centred development endeavours and to promote the value of qualitative research in industry, our key focus is on the exploratory phase, which we divide into identification (Step 1), research (Step 2), and interpretation (Step 3). Generative, creative, and evaluative people-centred approaches that are most often the focus of existing design literature, toolkits, and handbooks, are merged under our Step 4 (design, development, and testing). Now, roll up your sleeves and let’s get to work!
