It's all too easy for products and services to be biased towards the needs and expectations of their creators, rather than being built around the people that use them.
This can lead to products and services that are difficult to use and do not meet the needs of the people they are intended for.
If we don’t include users and stakeholders in the design process to test and iterate ideas, we can easily lose sight of where they currently derive value, and how to develop new value for them.
Given our increasingly experience-centric world and the fundamental need for inclusivity, it’s vital to adopt an authentic, user and person-centred approach to design.
By actively engaging and collaborating with stakeholders, we tap into their experiences as well as unique insights. This lets us get fresh perspectives and break new ground, as well as proactively reveal design issues — leading to substantial savings in redevelopment costs over time.
Active collaboration has the huge added advantage of building stakeholder engagement and buy-in, and therefore satisfaction.
