Human-Centered Design & Key Trends in Product Development

Have you ever heard of the Google Glass? Launched in 2013, Glass was a wearable technology device with an optical head-mounted display. It failed to gain traction with consumers.

The problem was that the developers didn’t fully understand the needs and concerns of its target users. Users found the device intrusive, socially awkward, and expensive. The developers may have prioritized technical innovation over key principles of human-centered design.

Whether you’re a large OEM or a small manufacturer, most likely you’ve experienced increased pressure to innovate. Creating products that truly resonate with users is more important now than ever. Human-Centered Design (HCD) matters.

It’s a trend that began in the late 1950s that will always be foundational to great product design. Incorporating new trends and technologies also matters to drive the best outcomes. The CEO of Jaguar puts it this way,

“If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design.”

Product developers are tasked with designing products and services that solve problems well for users and bring in profitable revenue for organizations. As consumer needs, markets, technologies, and economies change—you as a product developer must continue to evolve your strategies and techniques. This blog will review the principles, benefits, and process of HCD, and discuss the key trends that will keep you ahead of the game.

Understanding Human-Centered Design

Human-centered design is a core design philosophy that prioritizes the needs, preferences, and emotional engagement of end-users in every stage of the product development process. Let’s review a few primary HCD principles that will enable excellent product development outcomes.

Key principles of HCD:

• Empathize: HCD focuses on users and understanding their needs and experiences.
• Solve the right problems: HCD works to understand the root problems.
• Iterate: HCD continuously iterates based on feedback and learning through prototyping, testing, and refining.

Key Benefits of HCD

• Improved User Satisfaction: Products that meet user needs result in higher satisfaction.
• Increased Product Usability: User-friendly designs improve the user experience.
• Enhanced Innovation: Focusing on users can lead to innovative solutions.

The Human-Centered Design Process

The HCD process is an interactive, iterative approach to creative problem-solving. It typically consists of five phases with continual user feedback throughout the process.

1. Research and Empathy
   • User Interviews, Observations, Focus Groups: Seek understanding of the user.
   • Surveys and Questionnaires: Collect quantitative data.
   • User Journey Map: Visualize the user journey.
2. Need or Problem Definition
   • Review Research and Observations: Understand opportunities and define the problems to be solved.
3. Ideation and Concept Development
   • Brainstorming Sessions: Generate a wide range of ideas and creative solutions.
   • Sketching and Rendering: Visualize concepts quickly.
   • Ranking Ideas for User Desirability, Commercial Viability, and Production Feasibility.
4. Prototyping
   • Make Rapid Prototypes: Build on ideas with looks-like and works-like representations.
   • Iterate through Feedback.
5. Testing
   • Usability Testing: Ensure the design works for users.
   • Gather Feedback & Continue to Iterate.
   • Review Findings & Make Engineering, Manufacturing, and Marketing Plans.

A recent example of a new product design that has proven success in the market is the Oura Ring Gen 3. Launched in 2021, the Oura Ring is a wearable wellness device that tracks sleep, activity, and overall health. The design process involved extensive user feedback to ensure comfort, accuracy, and seamless integration into daily life and new sensor and infrared light photoplethysmography technologies. 

Trends in Product Development

Recent trends in human-centered product development integrate user feedback, advanced technologies, and a commitment to making a sustainable impact in our world. Successful product developers are working to understand these new tools and technologies and apply them into their product development roadmap.

1. Integration of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

AI and machine learning are transforming product development in several ways. AI delivers several welcome benefits to the process.

• Data-Driven Decisions: Product developers can analyze large amounts of data (customer feedback, market research, and product performance) to make informed decisions throughout the product development lifecycle.
• Personalization: Product developers can tailor products to the user’s specific needs by analyzing customer preferences and behaviors.
• Automation of Tasks: AI automates repetitive and laborious tasks, freeing up the product development team to focus on more strategic aspects of product development and speed up the process. 
• Predictive Capabilities: With AI, product developers can analyze historical sales data, market trends, and external factors to predict future demand.

2. Sustainable Product Design

Growing regulatory pressures and consumer preferences are requiring more sustainable products. Product designers must consider incorporating eco-friendly materials, waste minimization, and recyclability.

3. Digital Prototyping & Digital Twins

Digital prototyping and digital twins (virtual replicas) of products enable real-time monitoring, testing, iteration, and optimization. This ability reduces development time and improves product performance and quality. Additionally, it provides a risk-free way to explore new ideas and innovative solutions.

4. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)

AR and VR enhance collaboration regardless of location, improve design accuracy, and enable extensive user testing and feedback collection. AR/VR prototypes are more efficient and can reduce costs.

5. Virtual Collaboration

An increasing amount of product development collaboration happens with remote or global cross-functional teams. There are a variety of new tools and technologies to enable successful collaboration:

1. Digital Collaboration Tools
   • Communication Platforms – Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom
   • Project Management Software – Jira, Trello, Asana, Smartsheet
   • Version Control Systems – GitHub and GitLab
2. Cloud-Based Solutions
   • File-Sharing and Storage – Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive
   • Integrated Development Environments – Visual Studio Code, Replit
   • Virtual Whiteboards & Design Tools – Miro, Figma, Mural

6. Hyperconnectivity and IoT

Hyperconnectivity and the Internet of Things (IoT) are impacting product development with real-time data collection and analysis. New products are more connected, responsive, and smart. IoT drives innovation in user experiences, predictive maintenance capabilities, process automation, customization, and sustainability.

7. Continuous Delivery (CD) and DevOps

CD and DevOps practices deliver more value and reliability to customers. They feature key tenants of great PD like iterative development, rapid feedback, and cross-functional collaboration.

1. CD is a software development where code changes are automatically built, tested, and prepared for a release to production. This helps with:
   • Automated Testing – Reduces risk of bugs and errors
   • Automated Deployment – Allows for frequent and reliable releases
   • Shorter Release Cycles – Enables frequent updates and faster features and fixes
2. DevOps is a technical movement that combines Software Development (Dev) and IT Operations (Ops). It shortens the PD lifecycle and delivers quality software continuously. Benefits include:
   • Collaboration – Improves communication and efficiency
   • Automation – Streamlines processes like integration, testing, and deployment
   • Continuous Monitoring – Identifies and resolves issues.

Conclusion

The landscape of human-centered product design and development is rapidly evolving, driven by trends like AI integration, sustainability, digital prototyping, and hyperconnectivity. It can feel overwhelming. By continuing to stay close to your consumers and embracing new advancements in technology, you as a product developer can create products that not only meet but exceed user expectations.

As an end-to-end product development firm, DISHER is committed to human-centered design practices, processes, and technologies. Clients come to DISHER for expertise in innovation process strategy, cross-functional product development support, and concept-to-post-launch engineering services. We stay abreast of current technologies, trends, and practices to help our customers make smart decisions and optimal solutions. Take a look at a few of our latest projects. How can we help your team innovate what’s next?

We can’t wait to make a positive difference with you through human-centered product development that will leave this world better than we found it.