- HCD generated insights take a ‘whole person’ approach. HCD approaches to insights generation take a holistic approach, going beyond individual adolescent perceptions and desires to consider the social drivers of adolescent behavior.
"I think what we know through HCD as a practice, is that people’s lives are not in silos. So adolescent boys and girls lead rich and textured lives, and there are several things that interplay with each other in their lives. Whether it be friendships, relationships, family, their mental health, along with all the other things about making that transition from school to work, it might be setting out into the world on their own, or the experience of being at the foothills of adulthood. All these things come into play. Even just things like what they do for entertainment, how they connect with their peers… Maybe that’s something that ASRH work needs to take more into account. We need to stop thinking of SRH in silo… Instead, how do we think about the intersections that SRH has with other aspects of their life, and other aspects that can make them successful and confident young people who are ready to step out into the world and become successful adults.”- Designer, India
- HCD frameworks help practitioners use insights to ideate solutions. In the evaluation of the Hewlett Foundation’s investments in HCD+ASRH programming, insights were used to create frameworks that defined the boundaries and articulated the nuances of the context in which adolescents lived.
"We were able to create journey maps for all our potential users, and from the journey map we noted the possible intervention areas for each potential user. So the journey map covered the Pre Medical Abortion period, the Medical Abortion period which also has the conception period. Who do they [adolescents] talk to after they know they’re pregnant? Where do they seek help, and after getting medical abortion, what kind of conversation do they like to talk about? How do we now use that kind of journey, to be able to identify the best ways to intervene or pitch our intervention. So from the insights we created two things. One is the personas which give us a deeper meaning and a deeper understanding for our potential users, and the second is the journey map.”- Creative Strategist, Kenya
- HCD-generated insights are directly applicable to the solution. At the prototyping/testing phases, designers seek feedback on solutions as they move toward widespread implementation. Rapid prototyping helps generate and refine insights and further iterate on solution concepts.
"The insights on specific designs of curriculum and programs that come from HCD methods are often directly useful and directly applicable to those programs and curriculums, compared to traditional qualitative methods where the focus might not be the adolescent health journey specifically and might just not be as directly applicable or useful.” - Research and Evaluation Lead, South Africa
- HCD-generated insights help identify the ‘how’ of a solution. HCD does not always surface new solutions to known challenges but the process generated solutions that worked better than other interventions because they leveraged deep understanding of the users’ context or behavior, and applied this knowledge to implementing the solution.
"The human-centered design process was able to identify what messages are really salient, or what way of facilitating [engagement with young people] really captures young people’s attention. It was helpful in identifying the smaller pieces or components of ‘the how of delivery’, not the what.” - SRHR Project Director, Headquarters