Human-Centered Product Development, 5 op

Core content

• Human-centered design (HCD) process,and user needs and requirements in product development. Knowing and choosing suitable basic HCD methods for different phases of product development. Gathering user and experience related information and simple analysis of the gathered data.
  
• Human-centered design in lean product development. Methods based on HCD approach suitable for exploration of opportunities and needs, ideation, identifying and creating the value proposition, rapid prototyping, and testing with a learning launch. Artifacts, and communication of value proposition. Creating artifacts, e.g., stakeholder map, story board, persona to support design activities based on the collected information.
• The lifecycle of software product development project, the parts of the lifecycle and their meaning in interactive product development.
• Phases of team formation. Functioning, communicating and collaborating in development teams. Roles of UX experts in product development.
  
• Planning the human-centered design process in product development project together with the team members. Carrying out the work.
• Identification and use of various sources of information for human-centered product development: academic, commercial, future technology trends, log data, competitive products, online and social media, and other relevant sources of information and inspiration.

Complementary knowledge

• Justification of chosen methods based on understanding benefits and weaknesses. Analysis and rigorous reporting of collected data.
  
• Applying Lean UX and minimum viable product approaches in product development. Communication to users and customers.
  
• Choosing suitable HCD methods for any phase of the product development.
• Evaluating the functioning of a cross-functional team.
  
• Planning the HCD process independently as an expert.
• Analytic and critical approach to analyzing and comparing the gathered information and finding gaps and opportunities for design. Ability to use the future technology trends in the development of future concepts.

Specialist knowledge

• Scientific level of describing the methods, their choice, carrying out analysis, and reporting of results.
• Applying design thinking in product development.
• Identification of gaps in scientific articles and other sources of information for future research.