Introduction to Human-Centered Design (HCD)
- Course Number: M1008
- Credits: 4 hours
- Instructor: Ellen Huang, PE
- Price: $40
Course Outline
Engineers and architects shape how people live with products, buildings, and systems. This course translates Don Norman’s human-centered design playbook into practical methods for the built environment: diagnosing usability breakdowns, designing for discoverability and understanding, and preventing “human error” through better affordances, signifiers, mappings, constraints, feedback, and clear conceptual models. You’ll apply the Double-Diamond and human-centered design cycles—observation, ideation, prototyping, testing—to create resilient, intuitive interactions across physical and digital touchpoints in AEC practice.
At the end of this course, there will be a multiple-choice, open-book quiz, which is designed to enhance your understanding of the course material.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this course, the student will:
- Be able to explain and apply the core interaction principles to improve the usability of products, controls, and spaces;
- Be able to plan and run human-centered design loops (observe, generate, prototype, test) within real-world schedule/budget constraints;
- Be able to frame and re-frame problems using the Double-Diamond (discover/define → develop/deliver) to find the right problem before the right solution;
- Be able to design for error resilience—clarifying system state, reducing slips/mistakes, and building graceful recovery—rather than blaming users; and
- Be able to communicate system intent and state clearly (what actions are possible, what happened, what’s next) across mechanical, digital, and architectural interfaces.