WHAT IS

HUMAN-CENTERED
DESIGN?

that starts with people and ends with solutions

building and testing solutions.

One of the biggest shifts for us was how HCD collects information. We

sample size of users.

probably the hardest to do without someone guiding you. Post-its

then gathering feedback on that idea from customers. It’s an approach

premised on learning from people at all stages. Talking to a person

it just right.

far from what you’re designing. Instead of making assumptions in

customer than by designing with her at the core?

6
7
IS HUMAN-CENTERED
DESIGN RIGHT FOR YOU?

We play poker every

Tuesday night!

How well
do you Have fun on
Eh, I could be
know your Facebook!
better at that.
customers? Are you
ready to
innovate?
You mean those
numbers on my
spreadsheet?
I’d rather hang
out at home.

Yes! But it
sounds hard.

It can be, but

we can help.

8
HCD may not
be right for you Wait until you can
at this time. Only
commit more resources
a little.
to an HCD project.

Got
time?

I can Got
Me? No.
make money?
What’s your
time.
challenge?
Yes.

Yes. No.

Do you have
a well-defined Do you have some
challenge? resources and an eager,
committed team?

Yes. No.

HCD is perfect for you!

9
 FROM THE DESK OF A SKEPTIC

anything more than some feel-good

methodology peddled by West Coast
dataphobes that has somehow become

this document you will find the answers to some of the most

10
 FROM THE DESK OF A SKEPTIC

Q: WHAT IS HCD BEST AT?

A:
help you understand your customer’s hopes, fears, and needs more
strongly and personally than before.

HCD helps you get inspiration from your customers and quickly
turn these into lots of new ideas. It is very useful to go from blank
slate to generating tons of ideas that you’ll transform into new
concepts, products, or services.

HCD’s utility goes far beyond product design and can be applied to
any part of the customer journey, from marketing messages to user
interface to how customer complaints are received. Even if your
project is focused on product design, you will also diagnose a lot of
other operational and customer-facing issues that come up.

The design principles that arise from the engagement are solidly
rooted in customer insights and yet are simple and easy to grasp
and apply. They are a great way to codify “what we kind
of already knew” and get it out to staff in other
geographies or in a larger company to ensure
consistency in designing for customers.

11
LEARNING
FROM
CUSTOMERS
KEY FINANCIAL INCLUSION LESSONS
FROM OUR HCD PROJECTS

12
Insights Design Principles Summary

human-centered design is a fantastic

low-income people manage their money whether they’re farmers in Indonesia or shop-
keepers in Accra.

13
INSIGHTS

01

Poor people save, but saving is

highly nuanced and takes a
surprising variety of forms.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE
Design for Concrete Goals and Dreams

14
My mom keeps my money
organized into different bags for

her the money separately and she

Mexico

15
 The future depends
on God’s will.

Indonesia

02

Customers’ goals are short-term.

The future is a distant concept
and hard to imagine because
present needs are so prominent.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE Design for Concrete Goals and Dreams

16
 Section 02 / insights

With cash you

can’t spend what

Brazil

03

Cash works.
It’s all about control.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE Offer Limits not Temptation

17
 He [the loan shark] is nice if I
can’t pay on time. Sometimes
I take out a second loan to

Indonesia

04

People trust people more

than they trust organizations.

that they know who to confront if something goes wrong. They don’t feel nearly as comfortable doing
that with formal organizations.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE Design for Trust

18
 Section 02 / learning from customers

Banks are only

Pakistan

05

Distrust of banks
is prevalent.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE Design for Trust Talk Like People Talk

19
 Indonesia

20
 Section 02 / learning from customers

06

Communities pool resources for

DESIGN PRINCIPLE Community Counts

21
manage the phone for her. My
aunts don’t learn how to use mobile
money because I am always there

Ghana

07

technological awareness.

communities also means that wisdom is shared down and technological and cultural information is
shared up. All this is communicated in language that is easy for all generations to understand. For

mobile transactions.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE Talk Like People Talk Build Consistent Support Into the System

22
 Section 02 / learning from customers

Ghana

08

Poor people are at best

uncomfortable, and at worst,
fearful, of new technology.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE Build Consistent Support Into the System

23
Section 02 / learning from customers

09

DESIGN PRINCIPLE Design for Trust

24
The poor don’t steal

Indonesia

25
 I don’t play
games with
Brazil

26
 Section 02 / learning from customers

10

Fees don’t hurt when

the service works.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE Design for Trust Build Consistent Support Into the System

27
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Customer insights are only as good as the actions they spur.

we heard in the field and they directly informed what we designed.

DESIGN OFFER
FOR TRUST BENEFITS NOW
One of the reasons the unbanked stick to cash is
because it’s tangible and it’s certain. In order to succeed

greatly reduced price. Work with people’s current cash

Make sure that the transition away from informal bank-

signing up friends. This will build up customers’ short-
term trust and retain them as loyal users.
at its core. Be transparent and don’t hide any element of

Show your pricing structure up front. Remember that

will trust them because they know them. were immediate pharmacy discounts when purchas-

short-term insurance at a low cost.

INSIGHT 04 05 09 10 INSIGHT 02

28
HELP PEOPLE MAXIMIZE TALK LIKE
THEIR MONEY PEOPLE TALK
Low-income people already struggle to stretch their
money. Make sure that what you’re designing is a tool

products in a way poor people can afford. Think beyond

and loyalty programs can be easy and fun ways to help -

-
pocket costs. ties where illiteracy is a tremendous barrier.

something many low-income users didn’t think they had.

describe how they keep their money.

temptation to spend.

just a few months of use. Knowing that small fun rewards

phones instead of cash. And the rewards allow them to

enjoy simple pleasures without any guilt.

INSIGHT 01 INSIGHT 07 05

29
DESIGN PRINCIPLES

BUILD CONSISTENT GIVE THE CUSTOMER

SUPPORT INTO THE SYSTEM CONTROL
Support your customers throughout the entire user
journey. Connect with customers on both a practical and
-

are consistently supported at all stages of the journey.

possible.
touchpoints as well.

INSIGHT 07 08 10 INSIGHT 06

COMMUNITY
COUNTS
-
-

and social networks are all key to building brands and is user-friendly and encourages participation. Make
- sure the community lies at the core of all decisions and
edge points and nodes in a community can be crucial in marketing strategies by creating public displays of iden-
communicating a new offer. tity and support.

INSIGHT 06

30
DESIGN FOR CONCRETE OFFER LIMITS
GOALS AND DREAMS NOT TEMPTATIONS
People dream based on what they know. And what they
We learned that not spending is often considered a
-

them to think of a path to accomplishing short-term them. We often heard people saying something like
goals that lead to longer-term ones and can also build a
path to accomplishing bigger dreams. is key.

INSIGHT 01 02 INSIGHT 01 03

31
SUMMARY is highly nuanced and takes a

01

INSIGHTS Customers’ goals are short-term.

The future is a distant concept
and hard to imagine because 02
present needs are so prominent.

Cash works. It’s all about control. 03

People trust people more than

they trust organizations.
04

05

Communities pool resources for

06

07
and technological awareness.

08

09

10

32
 DESIGN FOR TRUST

DESIGN
TALK LIKE PEOPLE TALK
PRINCIPLES

OFFER LIMITS NOT TEMPTATIONS

OFFER BENEFITS NOW

HELP PEOPLE MAXIMIZE

THEIR MONEY

BUILD CONSISTENT SUPPORT

INTO THE SYSTEM

DESIGN FOR CONCRETE GOALS AND DREAMS

COMMUNITY COUNTS

GIVE THE CUSTOMER CONTROL

33
HCD
TOOLS
TOOLS AND TIPS FOR PUTTING HCD INTO PRACTICE

108
Learning from Synthesis and
Customers Ideation Prototyping

With the help of some top-tier design

came to understand some of the ways that

regards to practicing HCD. We’re not aiming to recreate that here (though do check
out our cribsheet to the best HCD toolkits on pg. 116

109
LEARNING FROM CUSTOMERS
SIMULATED INCOME
AND EXPENSE ACTIVITY
What
Participants are presented with
images representing common
hypothetical amount in play money.
They are then asked to allocate it as
them crisis situations to see how
they would respond.
Why
- This tool offers participants
stand people’s logic behind
and how they would cope with
-
participants kept setting money
their bras.
110
SACRIFICIAL USE
CONCEPTS CASES
What What
Participants are presented with Participants are presented with
concepts or potential product
or discarded if they don’t like or transaction was needed (emer-
understand them. Participants were
asked their impressions and opin- were then asked how they would (or
ions and then had the freedom to
reject concepts altogether. This money to the intended recipient in
those cases.
prototypes.
Why Why
its only purpose is to spark a payment channels and why a person
-
out how accessible participants
what method.
EXTREMES AND INTERCEPT PHONE SHOW
MAINSTREAMS INTERVIEWS AND TELL

What What What

chances to stop people on the street show us how they use their phones.
mainstream users of a product or
we’d ask people to pull out their
fringe users will help design some- phones and walk us through how

Why Why Why

We found that stopping people in All projects had a technology focus as

-
or not at all familiar with a product or settings was a great way to get their

something that will appeal and make many insights—what kind of phones
sense to the broad mainstream of possi-
ble users. -
the spot. able they felt using the phones.

111
SYNTHESIS AND IDEATION
stories into actionable information. Here are some approaches
you can use to synthesize what you learn from customers.
PERSONAS
What
Although personas are synthesized
from data collected from inter-
represent different user types for
help guide decisions about what to
design for them.
Why
Personas allow designers to better
understand the end user and
they make the design outcome
more tangible. In understanding
design for Indonesians.
112
BRAINSTORMING JOURNEY
SESSIONS MAPPING
What What
A journey map shows the path of
to generate a large number of ideas -
in a short period of time. In brain-
are used in different situations. It’s
- -
time a customer hears about the
the topic.
Why Why
Brainstorm sessions run according A journey map forced our team
forces you to think of things from the
cases these are the seeds for new
concepts and ideas. These are fast- the touch points with customers along
the way.
for rapid ideation.
BUSINESS MODEL
CANVAS

What

This is a great tool to understand

how all the elements of a business

essentially a worksheet that forces

of your business plan or strategy.

By displaying different parts of a

Why

Visualizing your business this way

makes it easier to diagnose where

We used this tool to analyze the

promoter business model that Tigo
Cash uses and we were able to spot

113
PROTOTYPING
can get it in front of customers and solicit their feedback.
PROTOTYPE AN LIVE
EXPERIENCE: STORYBOARD PROTOTYPE
What What
prototypes. Like the storyboard of a
- most useful to illiterate women.
area of Odorkor in Accra. We set up
a Tigo Cash tent where customers
be referred to nearby agents. On
registrations.
Why Why
Storyboards force you to map out
delity way of understanding the
successes and failures of your
actually looks like. A storyboard
- -
type is to document what you hear
114
PROTOTYPE AN
INTERACTION: MOCKUP
What
We mocked-up an ATM interface
on a poster board in Pakistan to test
what kind of communication was
Why
- We ran this particular prototype
using pictures because we’d had
limited success with words and
icons and needed to understand
how concrete or how abstract our
ATM instructions should be. Turns
and ideally the pictures should
-
ers use.
PROTOTYPE A PROTOTYPE AN
SERVICE: MOCKUP EXPERIENCE: ROLE PLAYING

What What

Role playing is another easy form

ATM to test the entire interaction of prototype and is ideal for under-
standing an interaction. Best of
This prototype consisted of an iPad
containing images of ATM screens

the machine.

Why Why

We ran this prototype to learn about

had customers create their own

groups and assign one person to
and information architecture of the be a borrower. The borrower made

phrasing.

115