Human Centred Design

By adopting a human-centric approach, a new structure or infrastructure – whether it’s a bridge, playground, park, or reservoir – isn’t simply a physical object consisting of raw materials and labour. Instead, it’s the manifestation of community aspirations. It’s a carefully considered design brought to life. It’s a way to solve underlying issues and make lives better. That’s because human-centric design places people firmly at the heart of projects.

What is Human-Centric Design?What is Human-Centric Design?Achieving Human-Centric Design How to Achieve Human-Centric Design Our projects Our Projects Why Does Human Centricity Matter?Our Human Factors Team Our Human Factors Team Contact

What is human-centric design?

Human-centric design represents a shift in the way that people approach projects. Rather than focusing solely on the material benefits to clients, it involves taking a more holistic approach that meets the needs of the project’s end users. By doing this, the overall social, environmental and economic outcomes for the project area are often higher (e.g. building a project quicker is more expensive, but has less economic impact through reduced traffic delays). It’s reframing our clients’ issues in human-centred terms

Imagine you’re redesigning a congested stretch of motorway where commuters are spending their time stuck in slow-moving traffic jams, getting increasingly frustrated. A human-centric design approach to solving this issue focuses on the commuters and the issues they’re facing.

It’s not solely the fact that they’re wasting time in traffic. It’s the ramifications of this fact. A slow commute means they’re late to the office, which means they need to work extra time to make up their lost hours. This could be difficult to achieve if they have commitments, such as picking up their child from daycare before it closes for the day. Which then means they need to spend their evenings making up for the time they lost in the office – due to their slow commute – and losing out on valuable family or recreational time.

A human-centric design approach puts the end users of clients at the heart of the solution. It’s less about clients, and more about humans and how smart design can solve their problems.

Achieving human-centric design

To be truly successful in creating human-centric design, humans need to be a central part of the design process. At WSP, this not only means involving clients and project partners at every project stage, from inception workshops to align our ideas through to project close-out, but also the wider community, including local Iwi. We have behavioural and social scientists dedicated to providing research assessments of community outcomes. WSP also considers how to best engage with local Iwi through dedicated Iwi liason staff.

Like for Auckland Council’s Kahawairahi Reserve community engagement day where we developed a range of engaging printed information for kids, such as an innovative co-branded ‘Let’s play today’ ‘Thinking Cap’. This was a two-sided, colour, A3 sheet illustrated with graphics on stickers. By following instructions on the internal brim, kids could fold and make their ‘cap’ before writing about their community and what they’d like to see in their park. This was supported by a feedback sheet inviting kids to share their thoughts, and stickers as a small thank you gift. On the open day, there was a higher than usual turnout, despite poor weather. Our engaging and different collateral attracted people’s feedback, as Catherine Hamilton, Principal Landscape Architect explains: “A number of people were so enthused they returned and brought friends and family to share their ideas for the park’s development.”

By involving humans fully in the design process, we can ensure any design, technology or process inherently meets the needs of the user – us humans.

Human-centric design in action

Northern Corridor Improvements project, Auckland

When it came to our design approach for the Northern Corridor Improvements (NCI) project, the impact on the project’s end users (i.e. Kiwi drivers) played a central role in our decision-making process.

We employed a “ghost-busters” strategy that aimed to reduce the ‘ghost’ markings that occur during temporary traffic management. ‘Ghost’ markings are faint outlines showing where lanes had previously sat and can distract and confuse drivers, creating an unsafe driving environment.

To ensure all Kiwi drivers using NCI could make it to work or home safely, our “ghost-busters” strategy involved designing traffic switches (i.e. when a lane of traffic is moved to the other side of the carriageway) so they stayed on the permanent lanes. This meant only one width of lanes was moved at a time, reducing the number of traffic switches and ‘ghost’ markings. While the construction costs were slightly higher, considering the whole outcomes for the end user meant that this solution was preferred, even in a competitive tender environment.

We also focused on minimising the impact on the busway to avoid disruption to bus users, not just drivers. We designed the construction programme to avoid severing existing dedicated busway lanes until alternative dedicated lanes are constructed.

The benefits

So why does human-centric design matter? There are many intangible benefits. Engaging humans in the design process means there’s an increased likelihood of creating a solution that will be used and enjoyed by humans, now and into the future. Additionally, increased human participation in the design process means more creative and innovative solutions.

There are happier, more satisfied and engaged employees in a thoughtfully-designed workplace. Calmer drivers enjoying more reliable, safer journeys. A more connected community centred around a facility – a playground, a swimming pool, a community centre – that they played an integral role in designing and developing. Broadly speaking, human-centric design also tends to incorporate more of a focus on sustainability which can contribute to better social and environmental outcomes.

But research is also showing more tangible benefits, including economic, by boosting employee productivity which can contribute to a country’s higher GDP. A recent study by researchers from Imperial College London suggested that creating the right working environment can have a material impact on staff productivity, and contribute up to GBP 20bn to UK GDP.

As the modern world becomes more automated, from self-driving cars to chatbots on websites, human-centric design is more important than ever, helping to create a world in which humans can thrive in a safe, sustainable and enjoyable environment.

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Our Human factors team

Our team of human factors practitioners, located in Aotearoa New Zealand, use their expertise to build insights into how people interact with the built environment, which includes an understanding of different user strengths and limitations. We use this knowledge to ensure an integrated design that improves safety, performance, and user experience.

We use specialist human factors techniques developed from psychology, sociology, physiology, anthropometry, user experience, and behavioural science to help shape the design of these built environments, be they transport systems, buildings, or cities.

Our services include human factors quality assurance, technical review, and capture of user data and input to better understand user needs and identify areas where more design effort will bring key project benefits or avoid future re-design costs.

We work in the following areas:

Rail
Buses and Trams
Airports and ports
Buildings
Roads

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Contact

Louise Malcolm

Research Manager People

New Zealand

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