Significance Of Design-driven Approaches Research (Essay Sample)

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Significance of Design-Driven Approaches
Introduction
The Twenty-first Century presents fast-paced changes affecting most human perspectives including consumption behaviors, the perception of new products, and a growing complexity of hidden consumer needs. As such, the concept of the human-centered design plays a significant role in creating solutions to the above changes. The human-centered design emphasizes the essence of integrating technological shift with people’s needs and society as a whole. The concept brings together creativity, product design, research capabilities among market researchers and development (R&D) (Wegerich, Jeronimo, and Matthias 75). The human-centered design ensures that facilities, products, and services are useful and interactive with users, rather than being a source of problems. This paper discusses the methodology and principles of a good design.
Most researchers hail human-centered design for its seven stages of human action that help designers to bridge the gulf of execution and that of evaluation (Lee, Younjoon, and Dr. Martyn 79). The implementation stages include plan, specification, and performing. On the other hand, stages of evaluation include perceiving the state of the world, interpretation, and comparison of the outcome. Most behavior, therefore, will require some of the stages but others remain unnecessary. However, it is worth noting that a sequence of activities is evident in which multiple loops of feedback are used to direct further activities (Boy 402).
The human action has three levels including visceral, behavioral, and reflective. The physical activities involve people making quick and subconscious responses without awareness or control. These reactions are only sensitive to the prevailing circumstances of the situation. Immediate perception of designers describes emotional responses. The developers find their products appealing concerning appearance, smell, sound or touch with no regard to the usability, understanding, and effectiveness of the product (Lee, Younjoon, and Dr. Martyn 79). The behavioral level has two fundamental characteristics, which include actions and analyses of products, services or systems. This level is critical as it aligns activities of designers with the goals of designing. Therefore, weighing of actions against expectations is essential. Positive expectations come with positive outcomes.
Last but not least, the reflective level entails cognition of designers. There is unfathomable understanding, reasoning, and conscious decision-making taking place at the reflective level (Durugbo 1888). A lot of analysis takes place at this level since it is slow, in-depth, and cognitive. The designer takes a close look at the product, service, or system evaluates the circumstances and actions surrounding. The designer can predict likely causes. It is worth noting that design must take place at the three levels of processing.
Lee, Younjoon, and Dr. Martyn acknowledge that a mismatch between human competencies and technological requirements is highly anticipated to occur (78). In this regard, to make good designs the author proposes several principles that designers need to consider while preventing error. It is critical to assume that mishaps will occur to undertake appropriate measures to elude them from happening. This section discusses these design principles. First, the designers should put the knowledge needed to manipulate and put the world’s technology into operation. This guideline does not require the developers to put all the knowledge in the head. Rather, it is important to use technology when the people in the firm have acquired adequate know-how. This situation will ensure that the individuals can perform without in the world. This principle implies that the experts can utilize the technological knowledge in the world in the design process to elude the chance of errors(Durugbo 1888).
Second, the designers should use the power of natural and human-made challenges including physical, logical, semantic, and sociocultural (Wegerich, Jeronimo, and Matthias 75). This design principle emphasizes the need to apply power to force functions and physical mappings. The third principle entails bridging the gulf of execution and that of evaluation. Making everything conspicuous both for implementation and evaluation is critical to preventing error in the action stages. The application side requires the individual to avail ‘feed-forward’ information while feedback information is necessary when evaluating the undertaking (Hertenstein et al. 10). The results of each action in the two gulfs should be available to enable the determination of a system’s status in a consistent form with people’s goals, plans, and anticipations.
The human-centered design process comprises several methodologies which guide individuals to identify the right problems and find the right solutions. The spiral method is one of them, which consists of activities such as observation, ideation, prototyping, and testing (Bunch et al., 2015). The four accomplishments are iterated and carried out in a repetitive cyclic manner, hence the world spiral. The method adopts the double-diamond design of divergence-convergence. Observation is the initial activity of the process. It entails research for information to determine customers’ needs and gauge whether they will consume the products or services of the firm. The researchers reach out to the customers to study their interests, motives, and actual needs. From observation, the designers can define the real problem and develop products that are people-centered (Hertenstein et al. 18). The observers must ensure that they guide their research to focus on the target audience.
Ideation entails generation of the idea following a dedicated identification of people’s needs (Boy 402). It can be done for both of the double diamonds to find the problem and to find the correct solution. This phase requires creativity and idea generation methods fall under this activity. Here, major features include generation of liberal ideas without regard for the preconceived constraints. The designer is encouraged to avoid criticizing other people’s thoughts since the obvious one could contain creative insights that are convertible into useful products or services. Prototyping involves putting each idea into test through mock-up of possible solutions. The Wizard of Oz method falls into this category, where mimicking of enormous and powerful systems before building them. The method can be useful in the product development stage. Prototyping during the product specification stage ensures a proper understanding of the problem.
Testing involves introducing the newly designed product or system to a small group of people from the target audience. This activity provides the designers with the opportunity to gather information through feedback concerning the prototypes. Testing the prototype using groups or pairs of people who can discuss their feelings and experiences can provide crucial information to the designers for modification or improving the design (Boy 403). Testing occurs at the production specification stage. Iteration in human-centered design process enables continuous improvement and refinement of the product or system. It ensures rigorous observation, prototyping, and testing.
Design thinking is a discipline that utilizes the sensibility and methods of a designer to match users’ needs with technologically feasible and viable business strategies meant to drive customer value and establish market opportunity (Hertenstein et al. 20). Design thinking entails lots of perspiration. It incorporates fundamental customer insights in depth and rigorous prototyping. The primary aim is to go beyond the assumptions that hamper effective solutions. Design thinking involves optimism, construction, and experiential mechanisms to address the potential needs users of products, services, or systems (Boy 402). Businesses have embraced design thinking to boost innovation and help in differentiating their brands as well as quick availing of their goods to the market.
Design thinking helps to develop ideas and transform them into systems, products or services that are usable, enjoyable that people buy primarily because of their usability (Durugbo 1887). Design that fails to serve the needs of the people fails as people hesitate to purchase it. The design is the totality of user experience comprising satisfaction, understandability, usability, and functionality. However, a great design requires to be produced reliably, efficiently and most importantly on schedule.
Human-centred design pictures people as the focal determinants of the design process. HCD starts from establishing a deep empathy and understanding of human needs as well as their motivations. The multidisciplinary perspectives of people are essential in the creation of successful designs (Matt 1858). HCD gains significant benefits from the input of varied perspectives and the creativity of individuals. Humans are not simple beings. Rather, they are complex regarding the needs and preference. HCD takes into account of this complexity of people as essential to producing great designs that are understandable and usable.
Human behavior should be understood the way it is rather than the way designers would wish it to be. In this vein, developers should not focus too much on technological requirements while ignoring people. In fact, technological breakthroughs can create problems for the people of the human-centered design fails. Designers ought to establish a strong understanding of technology and psychology of human beings. The psychology of individuals has been shown to remain the same despite growing technological changes in the world (Durugbo 1888). The kn...