Human-Centred Design (HCD) is a set of methods and principles designed to support the design of useful, usable, enjoyable and meaningful products or services for people. The main principle of these methods is to describe how knowledge about people and their interactions with the environment can be captured and applied to design products or services that meet their needs and desires. The development of human-centred design methods has evolved from an early focus on adapting product design to the measurable characteristics of people to a greater focus on the emotional needs and pleasurable experiences of people today. The development of human-centred design has also provided opportunities for strategic innovation, but has also been criticised for lacking the skills and knowledge required in a strategic innovation environment. Human-centred design therefore needs to be applied more strategically to support or facilitate knowledge about human needs and wants to support or drive strategic innovation. It is centred on the idea that human beings are at the heart of the process and that meeting human needs as well as experiences will be the focus of attention. Human-centred design can contribute to social well-being by solving social problems and facilitating social interventions. It can better meet basic human needs such as education, health and well-being. Human-centred design is based on human-computer symbiosis and involves the creative participation of users in the design of "development" systems. It also emphasises the use of ethnographic research, action research and empathy, all of which better meet the needs of design for social change(Souleles, N., 2017). Through this path of practice, the product, service, or system being designed will be able to best fit the needs of the people it is designed to serve in order to give the people it is designed for a better service experience. This is because the core principle of HCD is to design products or services to meet people's needs and desires. So in the field of social welfare, HCD can help design solutions that are more in line with people's needs, such as improving social housing, improving the quality of education, and improving healthcare services (Van Der Bijl-Brouwer, M.,&Dorst, K.,2017). By gaining a deeper understanding of people's needs and aspirations, HCD can help to innovate more effective social welfare programmes, thereby improving the overall well-being of society. In addition, HCD can facilitate the transformation and innovation of social organisations so that they can better meet the needs of society. Therefore, by applying the principles and methods of HCD to the field of social welfare, it can have a positive impact on society ( Dorst, K.,2017). From a workflow perspective, the work methods guided by the human-centred design thinking can, because of its compatibility with the core element of serving people, provide an in-depth understanding of the needs of people in the social welfare field in their lives in the form of research even before the design work is carried out. With the support of systematic research and analysis of social issues, and based on a more comprehensive social perspective, it is able to take into account diversity and inclusiveness, and better meet the needs of the general public at the social level. Because it is centred around the human being as the core starting point, human-centred design has strong cross-disciplinary attributes; human-centred design teams can build multidisciplinary teams, whose members can include designers, psychologists, sociologists, technologists, and other professionals from different fields. This helps to understand problems from different perspectives and provide more comprehensive solutions. In terms of understanding the target audience of a design from a user psychology and social perspective, experts in the humanities, social sciences and psychology can effectively visualise the motivations and social contexts behind people's behaviours from the perspective of user behaviours, needs and expectations. From the technical and aesthetic perspectives that may be applied to the design, the close integration of the technical and design teams ensures that the technical feasibility and the user experience design are in harmony. In the wider professional field, if design is used as the main vehicle for problem solving, focusing more broadly on the sustainable development goals of the current era, and collaborating with experts in data science, the environment and the economy who are at the forefront of the times, it will be possible to use the language of design in conjunction with human-centred principles, to make a more effective and practical contribution to social well-being of a high quality. For example, Care@Home, a smart TV platform that provides assisted living services for the elderly at home, was introduced in a previous study by (Fitrianie et. al., 2013). The smart TV acts as a user-centred 'hub' that provides communication, connects older people to their formal care network, family, friends and community, and offers services including home help, healthcare, exercise programmes and entertainment. As designers, psychologists and experts in socially relevant fields were essential in the construction of the Smart TV platform, the team worked with a cross-disciplinary perspective, exploring in detail the need for personalised services and interfaces to suit the different needs of older users. Based on the fact that the main users of this smart TV platform, the elderly, are the target of human-centred design services, as well as a valuable resource for the family and the community, healthy ageing is undoubtedly a social phenomenon under the current trend of population ageing, and the related issues behind it will be intuitively linked to the theme of social welfare. The issues behind it are intuitively related to the theme of social welfare, and the enhancement of this group's sense of well-being and the quality of related convenience services is essentially the goal of the design work's contribution to the social welfare level. In response to the growing elderly population and the need for innovative solutions to support their wellbeing, care and social needs, Care@Home's user-centred, personalised services and social connections reflect a comprehensive strategy to address the challenges and opportunities of an ageing population. Van Der Bijl-Brouwer, M., & Dorst, K. (2017). Advancing the strategic impact of human-centred design. Design Studies, 53, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2017.06.003
References
Souleles, N. (2017). Design for social change and design education: Social challenges versus teacher-centred pedagogies. Design Journal, 20(sup1), S927–S936. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2017.1353037
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London: Springer London.Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-642-39470-6_12
Dorst, K. (2017). Advancing the strategic impact of human-centered design. Design Studies, 53(C), 1-23.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2017.06.003
Fitrianie, S., Huldtgren, A., Alers, H., & Guldemond, N. (2013). A SmartTV platform for wellbeing, care and social support for elderly at home. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 94–101). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39470-6_12