Human-centred design (HCD) and empathic design

“When I came into design 30 years ago, designers knew they were designing for people but they didn’t think a lot about the people. IDEO was a pioneer in emphasising the point that we were designing for people – that we needed to know about people, engage with them, and learn about their lives. As time has gone on, we’ve evolved to designing more with people – bringing people more fully into the process. That’s a development from designing for people to designing with people.” Jane Fulton Suri, IDEO U

HCD and empathic design are approaches to design that focus on the importance of empathy in developing quality products that meet customer needs. This means that researchers try to engage potential users in the development of products or services. The level of engagement can vary from observation all the way through to co-design.

“If you take the empathy from design thinking and use it all the time, you will spot the problem others aren’t trying to solve yet”
Tom Kelly (IDEO)

In the 1990’s, empathic design was promoted by Jane Fulton Suri and David Kelley of IDEO, who also stressed the need for qualitative research to inform and inspire designers to create “more useful and enjoyable things for people [they] may never meet”.

Although, the term “empathic design” may no longer be used, it started a trend of putting people with lived experience at the centre of the design process.

Key concepts, tools and techniques: qualitative research, design ethnography, anthropology, immersion, contextual inquiry and design research