Journey to Human centered design and engineering

HCDE stands for Human centered design and engineering. It is an engineering field that teaches us to put users first, and to keep in mind that we should think outside the box. We research, ideate, prototype and evaluate designs. The most impressive thing that I learned in this UW HCDE class is that we should always ask ourselves “what if” question. There are always some circumstances that I do not consider for. We should really put ourselves in users’ shoes.

First is interaction design which I found the most interesting. We aim to produce an app to empower citizens to record animal data for scientists. When I was designing the app, I prioritized the visual layout and navigation flow. It is not easy for me to draw all the interfaces but the process of designing is very rewarding.

Another one that needs creativity and imagination is ideation. We have to ideate 10 divergent ideas of future transportation and then we expand the most promising divergent ideas to ten convergent ideas. I thought I was not creative at all so 20 ideas were not a piece of cake for me. Observing real life circumstances and thinking myself as the passenger of those transportation helped me a lot. I could understand what they need and what should I design to meet their needs.

We created three metrics to test usability of a Nokia phone in usability testing and I think the thing that we should keep in mind is that how the testing of product’s functions benefits users. Thus, we have to choose the valuable function to test and use test results to improve users’ experiences.

User research is a unique experience. We need to conduct field research and make jottings about what we observe. It’s an opportunity for designers to find out problems and improve users’ experience. Observers should be objective and reflexive. However, it is easy that personal bias, emotions etc. influence our observation. Thus, recording our reactions when we are observing or increasing the number of observers are good choices to improve objectivity and reflexivity of research.

We prototyped a system that motivates overweight cats to exercise and controls their diets in physical computing. It’s the first time that we actually created something tangible and it was very interesting. Also, considering for users is important throughout the designing process. We added a camera to let owners check their cats and created a notify system to inform owners if their cats don’t exercise. We also assessed desirability, usability and feasibility of our product. At the end of the quarter, we really began to develop a reflective and insightful mindset.

A good design must be derived from a critical and reflective designing process. There are many ethical consideration that we should take into account. Privacy, inclusion, accessibility, affordability, physical and mental health etc. are crucial elements that comprise responsible design. As HCDE designers, we should be good at not only (re)designing something but also thinking comprehensively and reflexively.

All in all, HCDE designers solve problems with user empathy and strive for a better world.

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