IDEO HCD Toolkit: Introduction
The toolkit was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, targeting organizations that work in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. I am not going to lie, while traveling to Asia would be wonderful, I am reading the toolkit hoping to draw out some more general lessons of the human centered design process.
The Three Lenses of Human Centered Design
The HCD process examines starts with the people being designed for, examining thier needs, dreams, and behaviors. The process steps through the following 'lenses':
- Desirability - What do people desire?
eg. Rocket pants, space cars, unicorns, and sporks. To be desired something dosen't necessarily have to be feasible, which brings us to... - Feasibility - What is technically and organizationally feasible?
And now we have to cross rocket pants, space cars, and unicorns off the list, leaving us to examinine the viability of sporks. - Viability - What can be financially viable?
So, I am assuming the spork business is pretty competative and covered by many interenational patents and we're back to the drawing board.
In summation:
Page 6 of the IDEO Toolkit
October 12 2011