Human-Centered Design 2 - Get inspiration from people
In Human-Centered Design 1, I introduced three phases of human-centered design (Inspiration, Ideation, and Implementation). Here is the ideation part. This phase is to learn the people you’re designing for with an open and creative mind. The key word is immersion.
The most important thing to understand the people is immersing yourself in their communities. After you create a plan, build a team, and have an interview, place yourself where they live and work. The following methods are the examples to gain inspiration from immersion.
Analogy
Analogy is a good way to get a new context. It enables you to extract elements of an experience, interaction, or product.
- List the interesting activities, behaviors, and emotions on a white board
- Write down a situation from them
- Have the vote on the site visits for observation in your team
Collage
When you want to understand thought process of the people, it might be a good idea to have them make a collage.
- Prepare elements to make a collage
- Give the people a prompt for their collage
- Ask them why they put the elements on it
Drawing
Drawing can be a bridge between you and the people. It also help the people organize their thoughts and spark ideas.
- Carry a pen and paper when talking with the people
- Give them to the people for drawing something
- Help them over a fear if they feel intimidated to draw it