Architecture and human centred design:thoughts Post#1

It appears that in the architectural design process there are a number of existing processes that would suit various human-centered design practices. The mechanisms for these processes already exist and are included in the fee structure, and hence are prime opportunities for user centered activities. The phase that presents the most opportunities for user centered design is conceptual design, although there are opportunities later in the design process, particularly in design development where existing designs can be vetted, analyzed and evaluated by usersand the design team.

Typical human-centered design activities are performed in two key settings. One is among designers themselves who use their cognitive understanding of users to evaluate designs and form in-house criteria. The other setting is when designers work with stakeholders, clients and users to both evaluate designs and to develop new understandings about how users will interact with their buildings. There are multiple opportunities in the typical architecture process where this might occur. 

While it is easy for design team members to meet in-house, the stages where these types of activities can be performed include design reviews, design analysis, collecting background data, developing alternate designs, and the various design phases where the project is being developed.

Existing phases in the project where there are opportunities to engage with users, clients and stakeholders are more prevalent in the early design stages, but do continue throughout the process. A key consideration is post-occupancy studies, which may not be of interest to the client per-se but is crucial to the design team’s professional and the building of expertise within the firm. 

Concept Design 

Concept design presents the largest opportunity for human centered design. This can include gathering information about the users from second-hand sources such as media and historical documents. It can also include observational studies where designers observe users in their existing environment. This is the stage where developing a clear outline of the users and stakeholders is critical. Involving stakeholders in the process of outlining users, their network and relationship to the project and to each other should be done at this stage. Activities that help designers develop empathy for users of a particular demographic are important at this stage such as personality profiles and scenarios, outlining a day in the life, and network diagrams of relationships. While many of these can be done by the designers themselves it is important that some of these are practices with sample groups of users themselves to ensure assumptions are checked before designers move forward in the design. These can be integrated into design meetings, community meetings, interviews and questionnaires that are already present in the current fee structure.