Human Centred Design

I think that this video shows the direction in which design is heading. I feel that since things that we as designers design are generally used by humans or have some human interaction, humans and human behaviour should be at the centre of design. This is the point David Kelly is making in the video Human Centred Design, and I agree with him. “We are now focused more and more on human centred design... and that really involves designing behaviours and personalities into products.”

I think that the example he gave of the technologies and products designed for the Prada store in New York. All of these products are focused around the customer and how shopping in the Prada store can be as enjoyable and easy as possible for them. The RF tags allow the customer to view items they are interested in on one of many screen throughout the store. They can see these items in different colours and sizes, and watch them being modelled on the runway.

The technology involved in the dressing rooms in the store also caters very well to the needs of the customer. Firstly the walls and door of the dressing rooms are made from liquid crystal glass. This allows it to be transparent when showing people the clothes you are trying on without having to walk out, and then when getting changed the wall becomes opaque like frosted glass. There are also more screens in the dressing rooms so you can find out more about the clothes you are trying on. The “magic mirror” also allows you to see what you look like in the clothes from any angle.

ApproTec, started by Dr Martin Fisher, takes products to Kenya to be manufactured there, creating 19 thousand companies (this was in 2001). They produce not only jobs in the manufacturing process, but also the produces manual deep well water pumps which allows people to set up their own small farms. This kind of design is human centred because it is designing not for profit, but to allow farmers in Kenya to make a living, benefiting the greater good of the human race.

I think that watching this video has given me a greater understanding of the direction that design is going. After watching this I am also pleased that this is what’s happening in design because I want to design things centred around humanity and human behaviour, hopefully in a beneficial way.