People-centred design as a process

User-Centered Design (UCD):

Focus: UCD aims to understand users, their behaviors, and attitudes by involving them in the design process. It helps designers understand the context of use, user requirements, and how to choose the best solutions.
Security Relevance: UCD is valuable for security as it highlights how users experience security, leading to better-designed security systems that are more aligned with user behavior.

Participatory Design (PD):

Focus: PD involves participants leading the research and discussion, redistributing power to the participants. It aims to democratize the design process, involving marginalized or excluded groups.
Security Relevance: PD allows security practitioners to co-create solutions with users, leading to more inclusive and context-relevant security practices.

Key Differences:

In UCD, the security practitioner or researcher retains control, determining outputs based on user feedback.
In PD, control is ceded to the group, and outputs emerge from the collaborative process.

Process Steps:

Understand the Group:
- Engage with the group through interviews, focus groups, or creative engagements like storytelling.
- Build an understanding of the group’s security behaviors, concerns, and context.
Create Personas:
- Group users by motivations, attitudes, and habits to create archetypes or personas.
- These personas help simplify the description of human behavior and foster empathy towards user needs.
Use Narratives:
- Place personas in narratives or stories to understand behavior-context interactions and identify the best points for behavior change interventions.

Recommended Reading:

For further reading on UCD and PD techniques, explore the Interaction Design Foundation website for introductory and detailed resources on these methods.