One thing I love about design is how it evolves, the way new concepts, new terms, new tools, and new approaches to solve problems are formed. This is a good thing, but I am a bit skeptical about how good it really is sometimes..

When it comes to product design, there is a lot of information on the internet but (bummer), there is also a lot of misinformation, so you have to be very careful as to which you pick up. It is especially hard to figure out which is which with everyday concepts that seem so familiar it may not occur to you that the meaning isn’t all too clear. Take ‘user centered’ and ‘human centered’ for example. Is there a difference?

Let’s find out.

I like to believe I am a free thinker and I hope you are too, so I’ll tell a short story. Once upon a time, in some far away lands (definitely some places on earth), some selfless humans called designers were dedicated to finding the needs of their users and solving them through a user-centered process. This process involved:

• Understanding the user and context of use

• Specifying user and business requirements

• Creating design solutions

• Evaluating effectiveness

The designers were creative, selfless (again) and dedicated but that wasn’t enough. They also wanted to be more in tune with their users. As we know, empathy is an important part of the job. So the designers thought to themselves, ‘who exactly are our users?’

Read more here.