10 ways to increase productivity through human-centred design.

10 Ways to Improve Productivity Through Human-Centered Design

Government agencies are under pressure to deliver on increasingly complex, large-scale projects. These projects are often very challenging and involve many stakeholders and partners. The projects require a constant flow of new ideas but usually do not genuinely engage communities or communities' needs.

1 - Find empathy and common purpose with communities

Co-create solutions with communities that are human-centred, equitable, and sustainable. Think beyond government as a service provider and think as a facilitator that engages communities and helps them achieve their goals. A human-centred approach requires involving people and communities throughout designing, implementing, and evaluating government services and programs to achieve the best outcomes. This also means that we, as designers, must understand the dynamics of how a community works

2 - Perform contextual reviews and discover better practice

Review practices in other jurisdictions or overseas to inform new approaches. Collaborate with other agencies or international peers and share insights with other government agencies and the community. For example, if the agency has identified a need to support more seniors in their community through a new service, reach out to other agencies that have implemented similar programs overseas or nationally to share lessons learnt. This will allow the agency to benefit from existing best practices and adapt them to their local context and culture. It may also help the agency uncover opportunities for co-creating a new and innovative solution by learning from similar initiatives.

3 - Conduct interviews and other research

Government agencies should conduct user interviews at the beginning of the project. The interviews should focus on understanding the user's needs, experiences, and behaviours and involve a diverse group of end users. Agencies should also conduct interviews with people outside their typical target audience to better understand their needs and experiences. For example, a government agency may interview teachers to understand better how students access services and how they experience technology in the classroom. The agency may also interview parents to know how they access services and their experiences using technology with their children at home.

4 - Synthesise and refine your research

Develop your insights into a set of design principles and insights to guide your project. Share these insights with your project team and relevant stakeholders to engage them in an iterative design process. Ensure that the principles are broad enough to be meaningful to multiple stakeholders but specific enough to guide design decisions for your project. These principles should be iterative, so they may evolve as the project progresses and you learn more about the community, its needs, experiences, and behaviours.

5 - Define a problem statement

Define a problem statement and identify critical success factors and potential challenges for the project goals, objectives, strategies, outcomes, and activities. Use the problem statement to help you prioritise your activities and identify critical issues that may need to be addressed during the project. Use these insights to refine your problem statement into a concise problem statement that guides your design and development process. Share the problem statement with relevant stakeholders to invite them to participate in the co-creation process and help to identify potential solutions.

6 - Involve the community in the ideation process

Government agencies often begin with broad stakeholder involvement at the beginning of a project. However, they often fail to continue engaging with the community throughout the entire process or project lifecycle. Government agencies should involve the end users in the ideation process to ensure the success of their project. Engaging the end users in the ideation process helps to ensure that the solutions are tailored to meet their needs and that solutions are successful. Design with your communities, not for them.

7 - Develop prototypes early

Develop prototypes early to iterate and refine solutions rapidly and efficiently based on community feedback and insights. Prototypes can help you test your ideas and gather user feedback throughout the design and development process and enable you to develop solutions that meet the needs of your users. Prototyping also allows government agencies to identify potential usability issues early in the design process. This enables you to address any issues early on and prevent delays during the development phase. It also helps you to make improvements before investing time and money into developing the final product.

8 - Conduct community testing

Government agencies should conduct community testing during the ideation and prototyping process, the project, and the project's lifecycle. User testing helps to identify issues early in the design process and make necessary changes to the project before they become costly problems. It also ensures that the final solution meets the target audiences' needs. Agencies should use various methods to conduct user testing, including contextual inquiry, usability tests, field studies, eye tracking, and remote observation.

9 - Provide opportunities for feedback

Government agencies should provide opportunities for end users to give feedback throughout the project's lifecycle. Feedback should be continuously collected, reviewed, and used to improve the product. Feedback can be collected through surveys, focus groups, usability tests, email, and social media.

10 - Provide opportunities for innovation

Government agencies should provide opportunities for innovation throughout the project's lifecycle. One way to achieve this is through an agile methodology that embraces change and encourages teams to work collaboratively to solve problems creatively. Another way is to enable developers to think like designers. Developers and Product owners should understand the value of creativity and innovation and how they can contribute to the team's success by thinking like a designer.

11 - Provide opportunities for collaboration

Government agencies should provide opportunities for collaboration throughout the project's lifecycle. Collaboration should be encouraged between all team members and all functions involved in the design and development process—including agency leadership, the project team, subject matter experts, program managers, and the development team. Collaboration will improve the quality of the product and enhance end-user satisfaction by empowering users and providing meaningful opportunities to contribute to the design and development process.

12 - Provide opportunities for inclusivity

Government agencies should provide opportunities for inclusivity throughout the project's lifecycle. This includes providing support for team members experiencing barriers to participation or feeling marginalised due to their race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, or other personal characteristics. One way to support inclusivity is to include diverse voices in the decision-making process by encouraging team members to share ideas through group sessions and creating an environment where individuals feel comfortable sharing their opinions. Another way is to develop a workplace culture that promotes empathy and understanding by hiring a diverse workforce and creating a culture of inclusion within the organisation.