Human-Centred design alone is not worth a damn.

Ok, hear me out.

I hear it all the time. Design is about solving problems for people or If design is not human-centered, it is art or design is about making things better for people. I do not necessarily disagree, but the to me the sentence is incomplete.

I belive that design should be human-orienented, but not soley for the purpose to make it better for people. We make it better for people, because it contributes to increased revenue, higher customer loyalty, higher efficiency for employees, reduced cost and/or better brand perseption etcetera. Making money is not a crime. In Norway, we have a superb public health system. Why is the public sector interested in getting you back on your feet if you are sick? Because when you work you pay tax, you spend money shopping, you contribute in making the world go around. So basically, the state makes money on you being well.

I think the idealistic approach where you say lets make it better for people is noble, although perhaps, a little naive. If you are able to defend that world view, then you should do so. If you want to go down that path, you need to understand that you then represent one of three major stakeholders. You then represent people or users, while others will represent the feasibility of the project, while the third will represent the viability, the business side of things. At this point, it is time to say hello to compromise. And this is what it is all about. My hope is that both designers, techies and business people can all say: Lets make it better for people, given the opportunities and skills we have (or let us adapt our skills to do so) in a economically sustainable way.

Design can not, and should not, work on its own. If you make a design based on experience or intuition, it might work out great, but to me the risk is too high. Design in combination with the other crucial stakeholders is alpha omega in order to make the project happen. I think that design should, how ever, work as a driving force in the project, saying that the users want this, is this something we can do? Then we, all the stakeholders, analyse this, weighing pros and cons of our technical feasability, is the gain greater than the pain of doing what the user asks, and how would this benefit our business?

To me, this is what design is all about.