What does... "HCD" actually mean?

Just at the start of the season of the Swiss ice hockey championship, an acronym is to be dealt with here, but it has nothing to do with it. Although the first impression of winter sports enthusiasts might suggest that. No, HCD does not mean the Prättigau Ice Hockey Club, despite its history and charisma throughout the world. HCD is the abbreviation of "Human-centered design".

In German it is called "menschenzentriertes Design", but it is never mentioned in this language, only in English. According to the professional definition, it is a problem-solving technique that places people at the center of the development process. If you now ask yourself "Who else?", you are right to do so. Who else, if not humans? Dogs, machines, artificial intelligence, aliens perhaps?

Let's get to the bottom of this. HCD is mostly used and praised in our industry for developments in the digital domain. It is supposed to enable designers to develop products and services that are tailored to the needs of your target audience.

The goal would be to take users' wishes, problems and preferences into account at every stage of the process. As a result, they would ideally get more intuitive, more accessible products. So much for the intention. But the reality is different.

Not being able to see the puck for all the buzzwords

Some time has passed since the term began its triumphal march from the American West Coast out into the world in the 1950s. Products were no longer developed by engineers simply to exist, but to be user-friendly.

Steven Jobs is considered a kind of MVP of the HCD. In countless articles, books and case studies for students, the successes with his Apple products are celebrated like victories of a sports team in a permanent playoff. He is also considered one of the founders of Design Thinking (another buzzword). Or of Service Design, the process for designing services.

No matter what design is hip in meetings right now: In most cases it is still understood as "designing" in the sense of "painting". Of course, something else is diligently explained and celebrated in the training centers. Human-centered design is understood as an approach to problem solving that includes the human perspective in all steps of the problem solving process. And taught. Service Design as the methodology of developing customer and market-oriented services in close cooperation with the client. Interaction Design as a multidisciplinary field that focuses on designing the interaction between users and digital products, systems or services. Etc. User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI) Design, Motion Design... There are so many design buzzwords that you can't find the solution because of the design. Or one is developed for which there is actually no problem at all.

Everyone who has ever participated in a Design XY course or process knows that at the beginning there is the problem statement. This is the formulation that is supposed to show exactly what a solution is supposed to be designed for.

Here in this column, such a problem statement is at the end: How do we solve the problem of learned behavior not remaining the rule (= boring = always the same) and behavior not yet learned being perceived as user-friendly (= innovative = I can't figure it out)?

A seemingly almost insoluble problem. To solve this, managers like to start briefings with the quote "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses," by Henri Ford. But then, when the innovative ideas are presented, they simply don't remember it. But designers also have to take a hard look at themselves when they once again only "paint" instead of "design" or only do something differently, but not better.

* Benno Maggi is co-founder and CEO of Partner & Partner. He has been eavesdropping on the industry for over 30 years, discovering words and terms for us that can either be used for small talk, pomposity, excitement, playing Scrabble, or just because.