February 27, 2025
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earning and teaching human-centered design isn’t easy. It pushes us to think in new ways, which can feel uncomfortable at first. It challenges our assumptions, encourages us to take a non-linear approach, and asks us to hold off on jumping to solutions. Instead of judging ideas too quickly, we learn to stay open, listen deeply, and focus on the real experiences of the people we’re designing for. While this shift can be difficult, it leads to more creative, meaningful, and lasting solutions for the communities we serve.
At its core, human-centered design is a way of solving problems that starts with understanding the people most affected by a defined challenge.
At its core, human-centered design is a way of solving problems that starts with understanding the people most affected by a defined challenge. Instead of assuming we know what will work, we take time to listen, test ideas, and refine solutions based on real feedback. It’s an ongoing process of learning and improving to create solutions that truly meet people’s needs.
Through Sprout: A Design Challenge, a part of In/Tend, we built a hands-on, beginner-friendly, learning experience where participants could explore and apply human-centered design in real time. By running two iterations of Sprout, we learned these ten strategies that make teaching and learning human-centered design a little easier and increased the percentage of participants who said they would be able to apply human-centered design to their work to 100%. These strategies can be used by anyone who is hoping to share human-centered design, whether it is socially among colleagues or through an incubator like In/Tend:
1. Use a Visual to Show the Design Process
A clear visual of the human-centered design process helps participants understand where they are and where they’re going. Revisiting this often provides context, reinforces connections between steps, and helps people stay grounded in what can feel like a messy process.
2. Emphasize Mindsets Alongside Methods
Teaching human-centered design is about more than just following steps—it’s about shifting how people think. Encouraging creative confidence, comfort with ambiguity, and designing with rather than for others is just as important as teaching the process itself. Revisiting these mindsets throughout the experience helps participants recognize when they are embracing (or resisting) them.
3. Incorporate Creative Warm-Ups to Reinforce Mindsets
Human-centered design mindsets like learning from failure, empathy, and self-awareness aren’t always easy to access on demand. Short creative exercises, along with reflection on them, can help participants shift into a design mindset before diving into their challenge.
4. Provide Clear Instructions
Human-centered design is already complex, so instructions for activities should be as clear as possible. Step-by-step guides or reference materials help participants stay on track once they begin working.
5. Use a Case Study Slightly Outside Participants’ Expertise
Working through a case study of a human-centered design challenge can help participants practice the process, rather than doing it hypothetically. Select a challenge that may be outside the typical area of expertise for your participants so they can focus on the process, rather than getting bogged down in the complex problem space. A strong design challenge provides enough detail to be realistic and clearly communicates the guidelines but still allows room for creativity.
6. Create Space for Collaboration and Peer Learning
Human-centered design is a collaborative process, and learning it should be, too. Participants need time to work in and across teams, problem-solve together, and test ideas. Opportunities for teams to share insights and approaches also expose them to different ways of thinking.
7. Keep the Scale of Learning Manageable
Human-centered design is complex and includes dozens of methods. Learning all of this at once can be overwhelming. Keeping the scale of content taught aligned with the time available ensures participants can learn and apply the methods. Learning a few methods deeply is better than learning too many methods at only a high-level.
8. Make Activities Hands-On
Learning human-centered design requires practice. Participants should practice methods by conducting real interviews, engaging in hands-on brainstorming, and building prototypes rather than just discussing ideas.
Tip: If real users aren’t available to work with, teams can create personas and assign a teammate to act as a user. This approach keeps the experience interactive and practical.
9. The Right Space Makes a Difference
A well-designed and creative environment supports better learning. A space with breakout areas, wall space for mapping ideas, and (if possible) natural light encourages movement, collaboration, and creativity.
10. Share Opportunities for Application and Adaptation
The entire human-centered design process isn’t necessary for every problem. Helping participants identify which parts of human-centered design they can apply in different situations—and recognizing the elements they may already be using—makes the approach more adaptable. Principles like empathy, brainstorming, iteration, and centering the needs of those impacted can be integrated into everyday work without requiring a full design challenge.
