Perspectives on User-Centered Design from a Public Health Conference

At a recent public health technology conference, I ran into a few interesting interpretations of user centred design. This is me trying to make sense of them.

The four common interpretations:

• We show final designs to users and get their buy-in.

I’ve done this too. Show users a design, explain how it works, and ask them what they think. But makes it a lot harder for people to say they don’t like a design. aka Validation Centered Design

• We rely on existing design patterns and foundational knowledge to create designs

If I’m building a shopping website, I’ll likely put a “Cart” with a shopping cart icon on there. But it’s dangerous to extend that thinking to a whole application and think that we can make decisions in silos without involving users. During usability tests, I’ve seen users read words like “Filters” and “Sort”, that a lot of people consider common, and have no idea what they mean. aka Designer Centered Design?

• We conduct design workshops that bring together stakeholders and users to strategise and gather design feedback

Considering the needs of stakeholders and getting their buy-in does not necessarily represent the needs of users. In fact, their needs are usually in conflict with each other. An administrator sitting in front of a desk might consider 20 data points essential for the health program. A nurse at a hypertension clinic in India who has 3–4 minutes with a patient, would consider that an unrealistic expectation. aka Stakeholder Centered Design

• We regularly test assumptions with low confidence by observing real users use the design

This sounds like user centred design. Although the way assumptions are tested can mean the difference between creating user centred design and an exercise in validating assumptions. Few biases to watch out for: https://medium.com/@tonyjoyux/12-mistakes-to-avoid-during-usability-testing-interviews-76b08134e178

Each perspective has its place but I got the feeling that sometimes “user centered design” becomes a box to tick of a list before launching a product. The idea is to create products that are easy and fast for health workers to use. Whether we call “user testing”, “usability testing”, or “user acceptance testing”, as long as that goal is met, we should be fine.