The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design
INSPIRATION SPOTLIGHT
In-Context Research “I wasn’t even on Instagram until this project,” says designer Rafael Smith, a perfect example of how human-centered designers meet communities where they are. The team quickly moved on to Kik, Snapchat, and others to fully grasp how these teens use their phones and to help inform how they might prototype their designs.
At IDEO.org, we’ve found that the best way to really build empathy with the people you’re designing for is to immerse yourself in their worlds. So when one of our teams set out to design a mobile app to help the Chicago nonprofit Moneythink reinforce good financial habits among low-income teens, our designers immediately packed their bags and headed for Illinois.
By immersing themselves in the Moneythink students’ lives—both physical and digital—the team came to key insights. They noticed that money for these teens was highly social—it came in on birthdays, for example, and flowed out while in the company of friends. The team realized that by adding a social component to the app (a la Snapchat or Instagram) they could make what is meant to be a teaching tool feel far more relevant and help drive toward better financial habits.
The design team started by attending the classes that Moneythink offers in a handful of Chicago schools, talking with students, and interviewing them about their personal finances, what kind of tools they use, and how money flows in and out of their lives. But in-context immersion means far more than attending class with the people you’re designing for. It means fully understanding and experiencing the circumstances of their lives. So the team toured the neighborhoods where many of the Moneythink students live. It visited check-cashing stores and prepaid mobile phone stores to start to understand the kinds of financial services on offer to this low-income community. And perhaps most important when determining what kind of app to design, the team immersed itself in the social apps Moneythink students use most.
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