Human-centered design is a problem-solving strategy that places real people at the center of the development process, allowing companies to build products, services, and experiences that connect with their customer base. It was popularized by global design firm IDEO, which defined it as “a creative approach to problem-solving.”
The objective is to keep consumers' desires, preferences, and dislikes in mind throughout the entire customer experience design process. As a result, companies can create more relevant customer journeys that will likely generate a bigger profit.
Applying the Three Stages of Human-Centered Design to CX
Human-centered design consists of three phases: inspiration, ideation, and implementation.
During the inspiration phase, the organization learns directly from the consumer they are creating for as they immerse themselves in their lives to understand their demands and desires deeply.
The CX team makes sense of lessons gained, discovers possibilities for design optimization, and prototypes potential solutions during the ideation phase.
In the implementation phase, companies learn from their tests, optimize the design, and embed customer journey enhancements.
Here is a more comprehensive overview of each of the three stages.
- Inspiration
This initial phase is devoted to gathering customer feedback. Instead of developing CX based on preconceived conceptions of what the customer wants, the organization takes the time to understand what the customer genuinely desires.
The inspiration phase often involves getting to grips with the feelings and emotions of customers. CX teams put themselves in consumers' shoes and typically ask them questions to identify what goods they're presently using, why and how they're using them, and what problems they've experienced.
"The jobs to be done" theory of Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen is a valuable idea to consider. In this context, consumers do not choose a product for its core characteristics but rather employ it to accomplish a specific objective.
By viewing CX aspects through this lens, one may begin to design user experiences based on their motivations, as opposed to traditional consumer characteristics like age, gender, income, and marital status.
To learn more about this theory, check out the video below:
- Ideation
The first phase's inspiration (or, more precisely, intelligence) will lead to the second phase: ideation. During this phase, teams generate as many ideas as feasible based on the collected input.
Then, it is time to develop a prototype for testing and receiving feedback after zeroing in on the most realistic and viable ideas. It could be something as making one tweak to a customer journey touchpoint.