HCD Students Partner With Claremont City Hall

Human-Centered Design (HCD) is one of the core classes offered at the Hive. It is a multi-disciplinary approach to impactful problem-solving that centers on a deep understanding of people’s needs to propel innovation. HCD draws from fields such as Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, Behavioral Economics, Art, Improvisational Theater, and Engineering, to foster students’ ability to empathize, define specific human needs, generate a high volume of ideas, create prototypes, and test the prototypes to learn more about what solutions actually meet those needs. 

In the Intro to Human-Centered Design class, students are doing real work with external partners, which creates a unique learning experience in the liberal arts landscape.

This semester, the class is partnered with the Claremont City Hall. In the project, students are asked to reimagine and redesign the experience of civic engagement in the City of Claremont. We’re living through a moment when people are losing faith in democratic institutions at both the national and global levels. Small, everyday acts of connection, other than voting or advocacy, can help restore the trust that democracy depends on.

Students will first look for existing forms of civic engagement (or the lack thereof!) in the City of Claremont, conducting ethnographic research through media and interviews. Next, groups will use empathy maps to unpack stories, needs, and insights of their interviewees to create rich user profiles and POVs. They’ll narrow their pool to the most compelling option, with the intent of designing for a specific persona rather than trying to solve city-wide problems.         

The goal is to build 2-3 low-resolution prototypes that students will take into Claremont, test with real users, and document their feedback. After iterating, adjusting, and retesting based on new insights, students will deliver a video project that depicts the extreme user’s story, their deep need, and insight related to the design prompt, and the final compelling prototype. 

Stay tuned for a story documenting project outcomes!