Human Centred Design

After watching the on video ‘Human Centered Design’ by David Kelley I was fascinated at how designing products have changed in the past eighteen years whereby products are now being designed to consider human behaviours and personalities. This is because of society’s advancement on Maslow’s hierarchy where human wants are being put into the equation as their needs are being met. David gives several example of how human centred design has been weaved into designs during 2002 which included Prada, ultimate cubicle and the spyfish.

In the Prada project advancements in technology allowed the shopping experience at the London Prada store to be more exciting and enjoyable. To help the consumer shop around the store, RF tags have been placed onto every single product in the store. Accompanied with a staff device the staff is able to find out the different sizes and colours that are available in the store without having to go check on the computer by scanning the product and even show how the item looks when worn on the run way on multiple screens within the store. This allows the consumer to feel a more free flowing shopping experience. I have never seen technology used this way before and it was inspiring to watch how innovative one can be.

It was amazing to see how different technologies have been fused to create different products. In the changing rooms of Prada liquid crystal displays have been integrated into the doors of the changing room so that they become opaque at the press of a button and become clear with another. Also a ‘magic mirror’ that has a 3 second delay allows the consumer to view how the back of the outfit looks like without having to break her neck doing so.

The design of the ‘ultimate cubicle’ for Dilbert (the comic character) went through some preliminary designs where one of the scenarios was all 4 walls coming to life and hugging Dilbert, this scenario showed how human interaction was needed in the office. The ultimate office had more emotional ties compared to a normal cubical. The top of the walls are orange lighted which represent the sun with green carpet as the grass. It always has stress relievers, ie boxing bag which a face and a flower that wilts when u go and rises when u enter. These design factors that have been accompanied in the cubicle have been.

It’s cool to see how technology allows people to now scuba dive without actually having to go in the water via the spyfish. This allows users who are not good at swimming or those who are scared of the water to enjoy the depths of the sea without worrying their heads off.

It’s pretty amazing to see how design has evolved so much. The video itself is only from 2002 yet i was awed to see some of the designs that have been out for a while now. I think human centred design is necessary as it creates an emotional response with the user.