Term Paper Report

Of
VALUES AND ETHICS IN PROFESSION
HU501
On
HUMAN-CENTRED TECHNOLOGY

Name-Shubhamay Hazra
Course-BCA
Year-3rd
Semester-5th
Batch-K2
Roll Number-22601217033
Registration Number-172261010069
Session-2017-2020

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 HUMAN-CENTRED TECHNOLOGY
INTRODUCTION:
All the technology we see around are all human centred. As the
word states “Technology we see around us that helps the day to
day activities of human beings fall under the category of human-
centred technology”.

Actually every technology is human centric either directly or

indirectly. Computers , smartphones , television , internet. The idea
of every new product comes from the real life problem of people.
The innovators try to analyse the daily life problems which a
common man may come across different scenarios.

For the most common instance of humanoids or robots, we see that

technology tends to create a machine that will substitute the
human needs in work place. The common example are in the
automobile industry .

Human-centred technology is an alternative approach to the

design of manufacturing systems where the operator is considered
an "asset" rather than a "nuisance". A human-centred system
utilizes and relies on the operator's skill, knowledge, flexibility and
creativity. It also gives him the control over and the responsibility
for the system.
The human-centered technology aims to creatively solve
problems by focusing on the consumer behavior and needs rather
than their demographics. The approach is currently adopted by

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different industries as it considered a competitive advantage in the
competing markets. Companies are now focusing on their
consumer experience as much as they focus on the product deliver.
The human-centered design is unique approach as it merges
between four main characteristics; it focuses on the user needs
(empathic), involves the consumer in the development process
(collaborative), believes that we can create a change (optimistic),
and based on learning by doing and prototyping (experimental).

HUMAN-CENTRED DESIGN(HCD):
Human-centered design builds upon participatory user research by
moving beyond the participant’s involvement and producing
solutions to problems. Initial stages usually revolve around
immersion, observation, and contextual framing where UX
designers become deeply involved with the problem and the
community.

The following stages focus on brainstorming, personas

(representative users of the product), customer journey maps,
prototyping and iterating on designs via continuous user-testing.
Once the solution is integrated, the human-centered design
process usually employs system usability scales and further user
testing and feedback in order to determine the success of the
solution.

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 THE HCD PROCESS:

“Embracing design thinking helps create new products that adapt

to changing market conditions. It’s also realistic: All businesses
must become more service-oriented and offer a stronger
“customer experience.” As the distinction between products and
services blurs, so does the distinction between consumer and
producer…”

— Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO

Human-centered design is an iterative process. According to

IDEO, the six phases of the HCD process are:

1. Observation:
• Making assumptions and hypotheses

• User research (Who are our users? What are their pain
points? etc.)

• Empathy

• Understanding “context of use”

(behavioral: where and how, **and **by whom would the
product be used?)

2. Ideation:
• Asking the right questions

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 • Personas

• Empathy maps

• Customer journey maps

• Sketching and ideating

3. Rapid Prototyping - designing and testing solutions.

4. User Feedback - User Testing

• User testing and validation (does the product solve a

problem?)

• Usability testing (is the product actually usable by people?)

5. Iteration
6. Implementation

These are the 6 stages of human-centred design.

Where does Human-centered technology come

into play?

Like human-centered design, human-centered technology focuses

on the needs and abilities of human users. Its goals are to make
technology more efficient, safer and enjoyable for people to use.

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Poorly designed technology isn’t sustainable and won’t be adopted
by your employees. People have high expectations for technology
and how it can fulfill their needs, and while most are good at
adapting technology to fit their needs, when choosing new
technology systems you want to choose human-centered ones.
And you do that by knowing your users and their needs and getting
their input and feedback on technology you think would be
valuable for your company.

Everyone benefits from human-centered design. It provides the

solutions that people want and need, while creating a company
culture that embraces and promotes empathy and understanding.
Human-centered design also helps with recruiting and retaining
employees, and it will give you the improved productivity you want.

BENEFITS OF HUMAN-CENTRED DESIGN:

Companies that use human centered design tend to have happier

customers, which will help the bottom line (as long as they haven’t
spent too much money on research, of course). They may also save
money on technical support when products are more user-friendly
and intuitive.

The benefits go way beyond increasing company profits, however.

Human centered design can make users more productive,
accessible for more people, and even reduce the stress that can
often result from products that are hard to use and understand.

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People will have more dignity and care when products are designed
well, and these products can set an example that can raise the bar
for future interactions to be positive rather than negative. Human
centered design is often more sustainable for the environment as
well, since user feedback usually indicates that this is important to
at least some users.

Human centered design often involves out-of-the-box thinking

that leads to creative solutions that wouldn’t come about through
traditional design methods. This ends up increasing the quality and
usefulness of products throughout the industry when an innovation
becomes the standard for products that come after.

Human centered design always begins with participatory action

research into current products and the problems that typically exist
there. Researchers observe product users in the real world or in
real-world situations, and users are often asked for their ideas on
how to solve problems.

Once the observation stage has had time to develop fully and
brainstorming has taken place, designers can go on to building
models and prototypes of products, which may then be tested by
users before widespread implementation.

DISADVANTAGES:

Why might a human-centered design approach ever be harmful?

After all, it has evolved as a direct result of the many problems

people have with existing designs, problems that lead to
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frustration, grief, lost time and effort, and, in safety-critical
applications, errors, accidents, and death.

Moreover, HCD has demonstrated clear benefits: improved

usability, fewer errors during usage, and faster learning times.
What, then, are the concerns?

One concern is that the focus upon individual people (or groups)
might improve things for them at the cost of making it worse for
others. The more something is tailored for the particular likes,
dislikes, skills, and needs of a particular target population, the less
likely it will be appropriate for others. The individual is a moving
target. Design for the individual of today, and the design will be
wrong tomorrow. Indeed, the more successful the product, the
more that it will no longer be appropriate.

This is because as individuals gain proficiency in usage, they need

different interfaces than were required when they were beginners.
In addition, the successful product often leads to unanticipated
new uses that are very apt not to be well supported by the original
design.

But there are more-serious concerns: First, the focus upon humans
detracts from support for the activities themselves; second, too
much attention to the needs of the users can lead to a lack of
cohesion and added complexity in the design. Consider the
dynamic nature of applications, where any task requires a sequence
of operations, and activities can comprise multiple, overlapping
tasks. Here is where the difference in focus becomes evident, and
where the weakness of the focus on the users shows up.
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One basic philosophy of HCD is to listen to users, to take their
complaints and critiques seriously. Yes, listening to customers is
always wise, but acceding to their requests can lead to overly
complex designs.

Several major software companies, proud of their human-centered

philosophy, suffer from this problem. Their software gets more
complex and less understandable with each revision.

Activity-centered philosophy tends to guard against this error

because the focus is upon the activity, not the human. As a result,
there is a cohesive, well-articulated design model. If a user
suggestion fails to fit within this design model, it should be
discarded. Alas, all too many companies, proud of listening to their
users, would put it in.

IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN-CENTRED DESIGN:

The human-centered design aims to creatively solve problems by

focusing on the consumer behavior and needs rather than their
demographics. The approach is currently adopted by different
industries as it considered a competitive advantage in the
competing markets. Companies are now focusing on their
consumer experience as much as they focus on the product deliver.
The human-centered design is unique approach as it merges
between four main characteristics.

It focuses on the user needs (empathic), involves the consumer in

the development process (collaborative), believes that we can

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create a change (optimistic), and based on learning by doing and
prototyping (experimental).

Clearly Define the Problem

Obviously, You can’t build a solution for a problem without a clear
definition of the problem in the first place. People tend to take
wrong decisions in their lives because they didn’t take the time to
pause and think if they do clearly understand their problems or not,
which leads to taking a wrong path that ends with the solution that
does not lead to a proper solution. For example, if you are taking a
self-development training, you initially need to identify the missing
skills before moving forward to the desired learning path that can
help you in your career life.

Additionally, focusing on defining the problem helps you to

eliminate distractors and other choices that don’t directly serve the
desired solution. In an experiment I did with my students while
teaching them one of the design thinking processes, I asked the
students to design a bag for their peers. The majority of the
students started directly in the sketching phase. Then, when we
repeated the experiment and I asked them to talk to their peers and
build a clear definition for the problems thy face with their current
bags, their new sketches have totally altered to focus on targeting
the problems and solve it in the new sketches.

Focus on the Consumers

Learning about human-centered design can help you to focus more
and more on the human rather than any other approaches such as
profitability or technology. The human here refers to the human
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factor in the process, it can be consumers, employees, or society
around us. focusing on the human contribute increasing the
satisfaction ratio which will reflect positively on the profitability.
One of the successful examples of adapting human-centered
design approach is the software giant, Microsoft. According to the
British Design Council publication, A Study of the Design Process,
focusing on the employees and building a creative environment
inside the organization has proven to have a positive impact on
their productivity, creativity, and ability to contribute to business
success. Microsoft has been known for a long time as a technology-
driven organization. Now, the company shifted its strategy to be a
user-centered through applying a design process that puts the user
in the heart of the process.

Understand Your Consumer

In order to achieve success and find an effective solution for
problems, we should have a clear understanding of the consumer
needs and behavior. This helps us to build products and services
with our user in mind. The human-centered design is actually part
of the design process models such as the d.school design thinking
process, the IBM design thinking, and the Design Council Double
Diamond process. All these models focus on building and human-
centered design by understanding the consumer needs and
problems, which usually placed in the first stage. For example,
the d.school design thinking model, there are five stage;
Emphasize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test. The first stage,
Empathize, aims to research and collect information about the
consumer and the current problem before moving forward to the
Define stage that focuses on clearly define the problem. In the

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Design Council Double Diamond model, the first stage involves the
design research and aims to understand the consumer through
different research methods.

CONCLUSION:
The importance of applying a human-centered design process to
product design cannot be underestimated. As well as potentially
having an impact on a company’s bottom line, it leads to better
products that solve real-world problems for people.

In this saturated digital environment where people have become

demanding and very savvy, applying human-centered design is
pretty much mandatory in order to gain their trust quickly, ensure
their loyalty and build brand recognition. All fields have
fundamental presuppositions. Sometimes it is worthwhile to
reexamine them, to consider the pros and cons and see whether
they might be modified or even replaced.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• https://www.hyperisland.com/blog/what-is-human-centered-design

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1474667017521370

• https://www.quora.com/

• https://summertimeinfodesign.wordpress.com/

• https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/

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