The 1990’s was a time of concept evolution. As the technological and product system industries started to grow, so did human centered interaction. Human-centered design (HCD) is a method of problem solving, which involves designing and developing solutions to problems by implementing human perspectives during the process. HCD transforms ways of thinking, going from a method to a mindset. It aims to humanize the design process and empathize with the targeted customers to maximize the outcome of the solutions.

In the business world, human-centered design is an incredibly important component to organizations. Switching the mindset to make the process a customer journey is the key of creating successful solutions. Here are the key benefits that a corporation can gain when moving to a human-centered design method.

Develop Better Products and/or Services

Implementing this creative approach to problem solve and focus on the customer-base strongly enhances the probability of success. The reason for this is that when you understand the wants and needs of the targeted customers, you will be able to tweak the organizational design to fill that need, making it more likely for them to utilize it. Using this knowledge when designing a product or service can generate a much better outcome that will be valuable to the customers.

Save Money

This one is tricky, because it typically costs ample amounts of money to create a design. However, in respect to design altering and upgrading, knowing exactly what the customer wants and desires will make it much easier and cheaper. Instead of re-creating numerous times to get a design successful, it may only take one time if you conducted proper psychographic research. Remodeling or updating a design only once verses numerous times will save a lot on labor costs and materials.

Organizational Team Building

Human-centered design is a team effort. It takes brainstorming and multiple inputs from many sources to come to the best overall solution to benefit both the team and the customers. Because this method should involve everyone in the organization, it can set a fantastic business tone where everyone feels like a helpful contributor. When the employees are happy and feel involved, it creates a great working environment.

Knowledge and Growth

With a human-centered approach, you will never stop learning and growing. From studying the targeted audience to obtaining continuous feedback and responses, there will be a steady source of new and helpful information. You will always be up-to-date and prepared as human desires and needs shift, which will in turn help with proper design alterations. Learning, adapting and implementing this method drastically reduces the risk of a product or service not being successful.

The development of this more humanized approach was an enlightening period, proving that making the business a customer journey instead of merely a product/service one is vastly beneficial. Because of the proven success of developing a deeper understanding of the targeted audience through psychographics rather than demographics, it is highly recommended to implement it in your organization for faster innovation.