Human-centered Design

Human-centered design--also known as design thinking--is an iterative process to improve upon or develop new products and services. Human-centered design prizes and prioritizes a deep understanding of the customer, incrementally improving the product or service via repeated testing with the customer. 

Design thinking, as it's understood and practiced today, originated with a group at Stanford University who founded the design consultancy IDEO. While variations exist, the most common human-centered design framework today is described as five steps:

1. Empathize

2. Define

3. Ideate

4. Prototype

5. Test

A popular application of human-centered design is called a Design Sprint, popularized by Jake Knapp and his colleagues at Google Ventures. A design sprint is a focused week-long effort to build and test a prototype with real users in just one week. 

One of the best resources for design thinking in healthcare is the book Health Design Thinking, written by Dr. Bon Ku and Ellen Lupton.