Guide to
Human-Centred Design for Social Innovation
Developed with support from:
What is Human Centred Design?
Human-Centred Design, a recognised approach for creating thoughtful experiences and systems, is a core practice of work at Aga Khan Foundation. We deploy Human-centred design to create innovative development products, systems, services, policies and programs.
The foundation of Human-Centred Design is a first-hand understanding of the human needs and behaviours in the systems being designed.
Throughout the process, the design team works to gather evidence that will inform their decision-making later on. It relies heavily on collaboration from a team, participation from potential end users and stakeholders, a willingness to find the solution through iterative cycles of learning, and a focus on action over planning.
By engaging the community in a participatory, collaborative process of co-creation and iterative feedback, Human-Centred Design can help to identify solutions that will solve the root causes of problems and meet important (but sometimes misunderstood) needs.
Key Features
Phases of the design process
Human-Centered Design is a structured innovation process. Teams begin with understand and empathize phases to comprehend users' context, perspectives, and challenges. Then teams synthesize their insights to identify intervention opportunities. They progress to ideate, brainstorming potential solutions, and finally, prototype and test, where low-cost prototypes are swiftly built and tested with users to refine design based on feedback.
Design for social innovation
Social innovation is about improving the experiences of the people we serve. We can achieve this by creating and implementing culturally-relevant, cost-effective solutions that deliver better outcomes over the long-term. We define innovation as the intersection of ideas that are technically feasible, environmentally sustainable, financially sustainable, and most importantly, desirable to those who will benefit most from the solution.
Social innovation also implies that the solution being implemented is new -- either brand new to the world or newly implemented in a particular context or implemented with a new point of view.
Design & nonlinear work
Human-Centred Design is an iterative process where designers begin with understanding their stakeholders' needs and conclude with a viable solution. Regardless of the order in which the phases unfold in a design process, the goal is for the design team to gain clarity and confidence in their idea over time. What starts out as an opaque process becomes clearer and clearer through design work.
Convergence & divergence
As designers move through the design process, they move between divergent thinking and convergent thinking. In the divergent phases, you will gather information, gain insights, question assumptions, and generate ideas to better explore the problem space and potential solutions. In the convergent phases, you will frame problem, define the potential solution, and take action to move ideas forward from concept to reality.
