Human-Centered Experience, Emotional, and Equitable Design

This concept sprouted from the principles of Universal Design, Human-Centered Design, and Emotional Design. I infused it with my unique perspective, ensuring that equity remains an integral part of the resulting concept.

This concept knows no bounds; it flourishes across diverse realms, spanning from urban development to digital design, encompassing everything from physical streets to digital applications. While one focuses on creating inviting communal spaces and the other on delivering exceptional digital experiences, both share a common, fundamental objective.

This objective, though simple, is of utmost importance: to craft equitable environments that deeply resonate with human needs, desires, and emotional triggers. The ultimate goal is to enhance and enrich life for all participants. The value of HCEx3D—Human-Centered Experience, Emotional, and Equitable Design—is universally applicable, and its expertise can benefit a variety of fields.

I am deeply driven by my commitment to improving the human experience in fair and unconventional ways, which I believe are the most crucial, particularly in the context of equity. The significance of this mission cannot be overstated. The act of shaping environments, whether they are urban settings or digital interfaces, to deeply resonate with human desires, dreams, and emotional responses holds the potential to ignite transformative change, significantly enhancing the quality of people's lives.

How can focusing HCEx3D benefit my organization, and what role can you play in assisting us to implement these approaches?

The Human-Centered Experience, Emotional, and Equitable Design approach allows for problem-solving that focuses on the human perspective in all steps of the process. These methods aim to make systems more usable, efficient, and enjoyable by optimizing for human needs and capacities.

Benefits of focusing on HCEx3D

Improved Accessibility and Inclusion:

Understanding the needs of the community allows for the development of services and programs that are inclusive and relevant. It ensures that marginalized or underrepresented groups also have their needs addressed.

Increased Engagement:

Designing the experience around the people that will use it can increase active participation and engagement, which is often a key metric for the success of community programs.

Long-Term Relationships:

Emotional design can help create deeper, more meaningful relationships with community members, turning them into long-term supporters and advocates.

Reduced Costs in the Long Run:

By prioritizing the user's needs from the beginning, organizations can often avoid costly mistakes or redesigns in the future. It's generally more cost-effective to design correctly from the start rather than fixing issues after the fact.

Better Decision Making:

Grounding decisions in the real needs and emotions of users can lead to more effective and impactful outcomes. This is especially important for community organizations that aim to make a positive difference in people's lives.

Reduced Costs:

By focusing on what customers actually need and want, businesses can often reduce waste—whether it’s in product features, marketing strategies, or customer service.

What I can do to support your organization?

  • Educational Workshops: I can conduct internal training sessions to educate your team on the core principles of HCEED. This includes techniques such as conducting user interviews, creating empathy maps, implementing emotional design strategies, and utilizing various qualitative data-gathering approaches.

  • Experience Mapping: I'll help you create comprehensive experience maps to visualize journeys and identify potential touchpoints for emotional engagement.

    Prioritization: Based on research and mapping, I can help you prioritize design and feature updates that align with HCEED principles.

  • I can conduct the following research activities for projects at all phases:

    Interviews: One-on-one discussions to gather detailed individual insights.

    Focus Groups: Group discussions aimed at collecting various opinions and attitudes on a topic.

    Observational Studies: observe users as they interact with a product or complete tasks.

    Ethnographic Studies: Researchers immerse themselves in the user's environment to gain a deep understanding of their needs and behaviors.

    Usability Testing: Direct evaluation where users complete tasks using the product to identify usability issues.

    Think-Aloud Protocols: Users verbalize their thought processes while using a product.

    Empathy Mapping: Visual tool used to articulate what a team knows about a particular type of user’s needs and expectations.

    Card Sorting: Participants organize topics into categories that make sense to them, often used to inform information architecture.

    Affinity Diagramming: Data points (often from interviews or observations) are grouped based on various dimensions or themes.

    A/B Testing: Run controlled experiments to compare different design elements and their impact on user behavior and emotion.

  • Performance Analytics: By setting up metrics focused on user experience and emotional engagement, I can help you continuously monitor the effectiveness of the implemented strategies.

    Feedback Loop Creation: I can help set up mechanisms to gather ongoing user feedback that can be integrated into future design cycles.

“Emotions, we now know, change the way the human mind solves problems—the emotional system changes how the cognitive system operates. So, if aesthetics would change our emotional state, that would explain the mystery.”

— Donald A. Norman, Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things

Get in Touch.

lakeshia@guidedbycommunity.com