Human-Centered Design

An approach to designing learning and performance solutions around the needs, experiences, challenges, and context of the people who will actually use them.

Start with people, not the solution.

Human-centered design begins by understanding the people who will use or experience a solution — what they are trying to accomplish, what gets in their way, and what their real environment is like.

Instead of beginning with a course, tool, format, or feature, the design begins with the people and the problem. Possible solutions are then shaped, tested, and refined around what is learned.

The shift: from “What should we build?” to “What do people actually need?”

Understand the People

Look beyond audience demographics to understand the real experience.

Knowing job titles, experience levels, or locations can help — but human-centered design goes further. It looks at what people are actually doing and experiencing.

Goals What are people trying to accomplish?

Context Where, when, and under what conditions are they working?

Challenges What makes the task difficult, confusing, slow, or frustrating?

Existing Support What tools, resources, knowledge, or help do they already use?

Design from evidence, not assumptions. Conversations, observation, feedback, data, and examples of real work can reveal needs that a project request alone may not show.

Define the Problem

The requested solution may not be the problem that needs solving.

A request might arrive as “We need training,” “Build a course,” or “Create a job aid.” Human-centered design creates room to investigate before treating that request as the answer.

What are people expected to do?
What is happening now instead?
What makes the desired behavior difficult?
Is the problem caused by knowledge or skill — or by process, tools, access, expectations, time, or another barrier?
What would make the work easier or more successful?

Useful Question

If we did not assume training was the answer, what would we want to understand about the problem first?

Design With People

Bring the people closest to the work into the design process.

Human-centered design is not simply a designer imagining what users might want. Input from the people who will use the solution helps challenge assumptions and improve design decisions.

Ask people to describe real situations, decisions, and challenges from their work.
Invite feedback on early ideas before too much has been built.
Listen for language people naturally use rather than relying only on internal or technical terminology.
Include different perspectives, abilities, environments, and levels of experience.
Pay attention when feedback challenges the original design assumption.

Designing with people does not mean every suggestion becomes a requirement. Their experience becomes evidence that helps the team make better decisions.

Test the Thinking

Learn from something small before committing to something large.

Early versions do not have to be polished. A sketch, storyboard, sample interaction, prototype, draft job aid, or small piece of the experience can help uncover problems while they are still easy to change.

Can people understand what they are expected to do?
Does the solution make sense in their real work context?
Is anything confusing, unnecessary, or difficult to use?
Does the design support the actual task or decision?
What should be changed before more time is invested?

Testing is learning. The purpose is not to prove the first idea was right. It is to learn enough to make the next version better.

Apply It to Learning