It’s time for the next step: from individualistic design to socially centered design
🚫 Why User Centred Design isn’t forward-looking
It is worth taking a brief look at developments over the last few decades. User Centred Design (UCD) is an approach to designing interactive systems that places the user and their needs at the centre of the design process. This approach has been around for a long time. It was first coined in 1986 by the book “User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction” by Donald A. Norman and Stephen W. Draper.
DIN EN ISO 9241–210, which defines this approach, now uses the term Human-Centred Design (HCD) to acknowledge that more stakeholders are affected by a product or service than just its users.
We are currently in an extremely exciting time, which brings with it many upheavals. Last but not least, the pandemic has made it clear how important our responsibility to society is, not just to the individual user and other possible stakeholders, but to society.
Two factors currently speak for a new definition of User-Centred Design:
Business models and the way we use and consume products have changed dramatically in recent years. We are moving away from traditional ownership models, towards shared business…
