Writing About Human-Centered Design

Human-centered design
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Introduction
Human-centered design refers to an approach which is used in creating solutions for problems by focusing on the needs and emotions of the individuals whom the solution is intended to serve. Ordinarily, this technique places the people who are targeted and other essential stakeholders at the center of the design. Thorough research designers and developers immerse themselves into circumstances where their creations will be employed and critically examine the thoughts and actions of the individuals within them. This helps in developing a deep comprehension of why things and people act the way they do. This enables the designers to create solutions which have the most value and that best fit the intended population. This paper will employ Donald Norman’s criteria of human-centered design in analyzing Moneythink.
Moneythink is a mobile tool which is aimed at reinforcing good financial habits and also promotes smart financial choice among low-income learners. Additionally, the application has been designed and developed to help students to become aware of their spending and saving moments, create small financial goals and aide them in engaging in budgeting behaviors while earning points that are redeemable for rewards along the way. Most importantly, the learners can update their peers about their progress in a social feed, sharing their financial decisions and also commenting on those of others. The Moneythink app helps the learner to turn their financial education into practical habits.[Sam Dewey, 2016. "How Moneythink is using tech to make financial capability the next big social movement." April 5. Accessed April 4, 2019.]
IDEO Company partnered with Moneythink in developing the mobile application. IDEO designs products and services to improve the lives of poor people and the vulnerable communities using human-centered design which helps in providing solutions which are tailored at solving people’s problems after internalizing and understanding their needs and views. The company delved into the experiences of how the teens make financial decisions. It was found that their financial behaviors are not rooted in factors such as sporadic income, varying degree of economic dependency. The company then decided to produce an app that may help the students build financial awareness, skills, and habits for saving while offering social media-inspired elements such as sharing, likes, and peer feedback.
Monyethink has been successfully designed, and it fully meets the initial user requirements. This mobile application has successfully implemented the principles of human-centered design. According to Donald Norman, this approach of design puts the human needs, capabilities as well as their behaviors and then develop designs which fully accommodate these requirements. Norman stipulates that a good and successful design should include the understanding of psychology and technology; this is fundamentally critical when designing systems or products needed to work smoothly and harmoniously. Furthermore, this design technique is also known as design philosophy since it advocates for understanding the people and their requirements first and then provide products ...