Lesson 9: A Human Designer

An aspect of communications is problem-solving, and when it comes to human-centred design, it is a form of creative problem-solving. Our group topic for the final assessment is to address public fears towards automation and technology.

As of writing this blog post, our group has gone through a series of interrogations, empathising, problem defining and ideate processes. Using various secondary data from news articles and primary data from local and international governmental reports; we concluded that the fear of automation has been developed through negative media coverage and the recent redundancies in the manufacturing industry.

During our first peer presentation pitch in lesson 6, our feedback suggests focusing on one industry when analysing case studies, especially the automotive industry. We selectively picked feedback to incorporate for our project. In essence, we considered ideates and took our project towards a different angle.

As the presenter in TEDxDenverTeachers puts it, “it was about identifying a need somewhere in the community and asking a series of really good questions.” Addressing the issue of skin cancer in South Africa, the presenter’s students went through 8 different ideas before concluding on a cohesive campaign.

It suggests that the students could have easily made an imitation of a similar campaign address the same issue, such as the sum smart campaign in Australia – the solution would be as expected, average. However, by taking time, rigorous interviewing and a hands-on approach. The students identified a key biological insight which led to the development of a sun exposure bracelet that would have had a lasting impact on its target community.

Moving into the future, we hope to further polish our website prototype. Currently, we are working to selectively present information that supports our communication strategy. Our challenge is to encourage cooperation’s of human and robots within a local community, without making it feel like a technological takeover.

Much like trying to take a good photo of Thomas Hogan. Many pictures are needed before the right image could be conceptualised.

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Human-centred design is a creative problem-solving process that aims to deliver the audience's needs through empathy and trial and error.

Herbert Simon's model in his 1969 publication titled Seven Stages of Design Thinking / Project Work, he defines the 7 stages of human design as:

- Define

- Research

- Ideation

- Prototype

- Choose

- Implement

- Learn

Differing from our modern-day counterpart involving:

- Interrogation

- Empathising

- Defining

- Ideation

- Prototype

- Testing

Simon's human design process is a similar, yet vigours method. The most noteworthy difference between the two models is Herbert Simon's "Choose" methodology. He argues to always keep the objective in mind and set aside the emotion of ideas to avoid overthinking.

The whole premise of human-centred design is to encourage the exchange of emotions. Without empathy, then the whole process would be like any other design process - a process of initial research followed by repeated trials and adjustments. If that were the case, my group assessment would be no different than an advertisement campaign.

Another point Herbert Simon suggests is:

"The most practical solution isn't always the best."

I disagree with this statement because "practicality" would be limited by client interests, financial restraints and time - factors that are really difficult to change. Instead, practicality should come first during campaign development, because no matter how creative a communication solution is, practicality would limit or undermine an intended message.

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Design Thinking -- Maximizing Your Students' Creative Talent: Co Barry at TEDxDenverTeachers, 2013, YouTube video, Co Barry, viewed 10 December 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=91&v=nyt4YvXRRGA&feature=emb_title>

S. Herbet, 1969, Seven Stages of Design Thinking/Project Work, The Sciences of the Artificial Cambridge: MIT Press, 1969, viewed 10 December 2019, <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rEikIbqcpKMzj2wY7SZPCVoqpH20qWtA/view>