KIEM grant for ‘Communicating user-centered design to non-design professionals’

How do we grant as much people as possible access to knowledge about user-centered design? IDE researcher Jasper van Kuijk, together with Prof. Pieter Jan Stappers and Assistant Prof. Arnold Vermeeren, was just awarded an NWO KIEM grant of € 15,000 in order to create a comprehensive and accessible overview of these design principles and methods.

Design and innovation play an increasingly important role in the economical and societal development of the Netherlands. Many institutes, companies and governments aim to contribute to a competitive economy and sustainable society by engaging in design and innovation. One of the areas of design that has become well-established over the past decades is that of user-centered design (UCD). Here, product or service quality is measured from a user’s point of view, instead of a focus on technological possibilities.

For successful adoption and execution of UCD, a solid understanding and appreciation of this design approach is required. Not just among designers, but also - and maybe even especially so - among designers’ peers. Which means among non-design professionals. Therefore, the goal of this project is to collect established UCD principles, processes and practices from design research and design practice, and to disseminate these to professionals who (could) work with designers. The aim is to increase their understanding of what user-centered design is, why it is important, and how to apply it successfully.

Consortium partners for this project include: Koninklijke Philips NV, VanBerlo, mbstudio, Océ, Happen, Sharp Panda B.V., TomTom, Fabrique B.V., Q42 B.V., and Maven Publishing.