Introduction to human-centered design

Purpose

The HCD Guides are intended to enhance the understanding and practice of human-centered design throughout the federal government. The Guides can be used both as teaching tools and references. They were originally created for the Veterans Administration’s (VA) Veterans Experience Office (VEO) by Insight & Design, a team within VEO that has expertise in human-centered design, and later adapted for use across other agencies through a partnership between GSA’s Office of Customer Experience and The Lab at OPM. This version has been tailored for GSA.

Audience

The audience is those who want to learn how to design and build things that work well for customers.

Thanks and acknowledgements

Numerous people across many agencies contributed to this guide. We are grateful to all of them.

• Veterans Experience Office at VA
• GSA Office of Customer Experience
• The Lab at OPM

We would also like acknowledge other leaders in the field of human-centered design who inspired and informed this guide: The VA Innovators Network, 18F, the United States Digital Service (USDS), Deloitte & Doblin, Helsinki Design Lab, Luma Institute, Ideo and Ideo.org, Frog Design, IBM Design, and The d.School at Stanford University.

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