What Is Human-Centered Design in Industry? 7 Examples

When many workers and consumers think of an industrial facility, they think of the product. What innovations are happening on the conveyors? How will the items make the company money? These questions give us a small insight about a phenomenon workplaces are steering away from. They are focusing more on equipment and efficiency than the people running the show and buying the items. The products need to be created for real people to use accessibly. So, what is human-centered design when it comes to industrial work and management?

What Is Human-Centered Design and Its Qualities?

Human-centered design (HCD) is a business framework that ensures humans are the driving force of the creation process. The product or service is designed to appeal and engage with people, and this takes precedence over any other conceptualizing priority. It puts the audience’s wants and needs above all else, including profit. 

This motivation is also a way to solve problems, as it provides a guiding principle anytime there is a hiccup in design, manufacturing or transportation. The product’s worth will always go back to how much it is usable and useful to people.

Many companies adopt HCD because it can boost customer loyalty and satisfaction. There are certain principles that align with HCD, and they include:

• Empathy
• Collaboration
• No wrong ideas
• Inclusion
• Innovation
• Yes, and
• Iteration

Examples of Human-Centered Design

These are examples of how human-centered design could look in different sectors.

1. Health Care

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many needed health care but feared going to the doctor — or even going outside. This is when telehealth apps and websites became even more popular than they were before. However, because the public’s needs were more complex, the designs and functionalities of these apps had to go beyond conferencing and be usable by health care’s target audience — which is everyone. 

This meant simplifying scheduling, communications and troubleshooting so everyone could use the interface with minimal struggles. It was not about creating sleek, high-tech software. It was about making something approachable and satisfactory to appeal to all levels of tech-saviness.

2. Electronics and Technology

Smartphones are another piece of machinery that has gradually become ubiquitous. Most people have one, and it doesn’t matter what age or background you come from so long as you have an internet connection and money to pay the bill. This meant tech megagiants like Apple and Google had to go beyond flashy capabilities to impress the techies. 

They had to question how people with mobility problems could use their products well — voice activation. They had to help people with vision problems — contrast settings and text resizing. They also have to make their products secure. This is another facet of what human-centered design is. Increased cybersecurity on an iPhone directly impacts usability and safety, so it is a part of it.

3. Automotive

Many fumble with their car’s dashboard, setting up their phone to act as a GPS. This frustration was a necessity, but carmakers decided to include in-car navigation systems to make the experience people-first and more intuitive. Much like the boons of a smartphone, it includes voice commands and easy-to-use displays to make the modern era of driving safer and convenient.

4. Education

Most students of the current age have used platforms like Moodle, which are learning management systems designed to streamline communications and accessibility with students and teachers. These tools are interactive and expand the learning experience beyond lectures and paper assignments — the human-centered approach is at work by appealing to more types of learners with adaptable technologies.

Human-centered motivations might be the reason many consider artificial intelligence (AI) in education. Its ability to study learning styles and patterns could have unprecedented benefits for students, though the drawbacks are worth considering in equal measure.

5. Retail

Every website wants to make it easier for you to shop on it. TikTok Shop, Amazon and others include functions like One-Click Purchase and photo identification to reduce research and decision fatigue so you can make the fastest choice possible. Ever notice the recommendations near the product reviews of what people often bundle with the purchase? This is also human-centric, though it could be more dangerous for your wallet. 

6. Public Transportation

Public transportation has made many strides over the years to leverage real-time information. Nobody wants to deal with late or expensive cars, trains and planes. So, stations now have data incoming every second, with tickers and apps reporting delays and weather information. This solves numerous problems for humans and minimizes the amount of pressure put on customer service agents at places like train depots, airports and more. 

7. Finance

The world of financial tech, or fintech, has gone beyond expectation. What seems like an old-world industry with coins and dollars has become one of the most technologically revolutionary industries on the planet. While most of it was to implement next-generation equipment to increase profit, many of the byproducts of this growth helps humans work better with their money.

One of the first examples of this are apps that include robo-investors. Many people shy away from putting money into an index fund or similar stocks because they are intimidated or uninformed. Robo-investors make a high-stakes activity feel accessible, and some places even allow you to invest pennies at a time through microdeposits called roundups. This helps wealth generation happen almost passively.

In general, the advent of the banking app has made people have so much flexibility with their money. They can move it to savings, send it to friends, track their budget categories and get notified of any breaches or overdrafts — all without numerous, time-consuming trips to the teller. While a banking app seems commonplace now, it is a longstanding example of human-centered design.

People-First Workplaces and Products

Human-centered design will empower workers in these sectors. It will also help consumers feel greater agency over what they purchase. It will make their environments safer and more productive to be in. It will also make coming to work more fulfilling every day. Why? 

The people-first focus of the workflow will provide peace of mind and assurance to people that stakeholders care more about their employees than next-generation equipment. Despite the magic new tech can do, everyone must remember to prioritize staff first.