What is human-centered design—and how does it work in practice?

Design innovations that delight users start with understanding core human needs. Human-centered design (HCD) helps designers explore possible solutions and improve user experiences in any field, from healthcare to e-commerce.

Read on to learn more about:

• What human-centered design is, and why HCD matters
• 3 fundamentals of human-centered design
• Industry case study on how user-centered design can work with AI
• 5 steps to the HCD process—and Figma tools that make it easy

What is human-centered design?

Human-centered design (HCD) puts people at the center of the design process. It begins with digging into user needs, challenges, and behaviors in real-world settings. With empathy and user insights, designers and key stakeholders can start brainstorming meaningful solutions. HCD goes beyond traditional problem-solving, sparking innovations that inspire user loyalty, spur growth, and transform business models.

Connecting UX and HCD

If you're a UX designer, the HCD process probably sounds familiar. HCD informs UX design principles—including user research, wireframing, prototyping, and usability testing. HCD takes a holistic, human-centered approach to UX design, focusing design teams on user needs across the product development process. HCD’s participatory design approach taps end-user input early and often, inviting users to co-design, test, and fine-tune UX design solutions.

Why human-centered design matters

Human-centered design fosters emotional connections between people and products or services. Empathizing with users inspires good design that doesn’t just work—it can spark joy. This builds relationships and business results, too: HCD can help organizations engage new users, and turn occasional users into enthusiastic brand devotees.

HCD strengthens organizations inside and out. The HCD methodology helps designers, developers, product managers, and leadership stay in sync—and on top of changing customer needs. With everyone empathizing with and innovating for real people, goals become clearer and decision-making easier.

Case study: LinkedIn's human-centered approach to AI

When recruiters use LinkedIn's AI to craft messages to candidates, they can see and select fields for AI to apply. LinkedIn's product development team recognized that users like being in control of AI automation, and found an approach to give recruiters a sense of control and agency.

“You can automate a ton of stuff,” says Shyvee Shi, Product Lead at LinkedIn. “But the human needs to be in the driver seat.” To put her wisdom to work for your product, try her generative AI framework for the Figma community.

3 fundamentals of human-centered design

Human-centered design focuses on creating products and services that really matter to users. Here are three HCD fundamentals:

1. See from your customers' point of view.

To build products and services that users love, first you need to empathize with them. Research helps teams gather user insights to create meaningful solutions—but don't stop there. "The best way to build empathy for your customers is to make them an extension of your team," , says veteran product lead Peter Yang. "Recruit a few dozen customers who are a mix of beginner, intermediate, and advanced users to be in conversation."

2. Evolve products with users in mind.

In a human-centered design process, teams keep key customer problems (aka careabouts) top of mind. This helps companies continuously improve product functionality, easing user pain points and enhancing the overall experience. "Spend a day—or even an hour—using your product, just like a customer would," advises Peter Yang. "A lot of people skip this critical step and rush into coming up with a vision or solutions. You must resist this instinct."

3. Solve problems holistically.

The problems your users encounter may only be small pieces of a bigger puzzle. To solve the right problem, human-centered design teams drill down to the root cause.

Human-centered design in 5 essential steps

Lead your team to produce creative solutions that meet user needs with these five steps to the HCD process.

Step 1: Define the problem.

Identify a key user problem your company can solve. To gather input from stakeholders and team players, you can host a brainstorming session with FigJam’s online collaborative whiteboard.

Step 2: Gather user research.

Lean on research methods such as user interviews to uncover user likes and dislikes, thoughts, and feelings. Your observations can help you refine or validate your problem statement.

Step 3: Generate ideas.

During the ideation phase, user research insights spark creative concepts. Teams pursue promising ideas that answer key design questions: Does the concept meet user needs? Can we build it with the resources and technology available? Does the solution promise long-term profits for business sustainability?

Step 4: Build prototypes.

Use rapid prototyping to create interactive mock-ups, so that you can test and validate your design concept. Invite input from key stakeholders and tersters, then use their feedback to tweak your prototype.

Step 5: Test & iterate.

Conduct user testing with your prototype, and keep iterating until the prototype meets user expectations. Then build the product to take it to market—and captivate users.

Jumpstart human-centered design with Figma

Kick off your human-centered design process by pinpointing the user problem your team wants to solve with FigJam's online collaborative whiteboard. Figma’s research and design templates will help you collect research to find your user-centered design direction. When you’re ready to design potential solutions, use Figma’s wireframing and prototyping tools. Pro tip: Figma’s drag-and-drop wireframe kit can streamline your design process.

Craving more inspiration? Check pro-level UX design and prototyping tips and tricks shared by the Figma design community.