Introduction to Human-Centred Design

Join Iain Barker, co-founder of Meld Studios and ex-Director of Customer Experience Design at Transport for NSW, for a highly interactive session exploring human-centred design theory, practical activities and insights from 30 years' experience providing HCD services into public and private sector organisations.

What you'll learn

You’ll leave with a practical toolkit you can use straight away:

• How to discover real customer needs

• How to make sense of unstructured data, with and without AI

• How to frame problems

• How to facilitate generative co-design activities with stakeholders

• How to prototype and test ideas, from rough sketches to polished materials

• How to make the case for HCD within your organisation

• How to avoid the common traps as your HCD practice matures

How it works

The course blends theory with hands-on practice. You’ll work through real activities, hear case studies and impact stories from government and private sector work, and practise each method in small groups rather than just hearing about it.

Most design courses teach the tools. This one also covers how to bring other people along and how to make the practice stick inside an organisation, which is where most efforts stall.

No single training will take you from zero to hero. But this one has kick-started and supported many a journey.

Who it’s for

Anyone helping their organisation become more customer-centred, including managers of innovation, UX, marketing, IT and products, customer experience professionals, business analysts, change managers, start-ups and in-house design teams. You don’t need a design background.

Why learn from us

All training is delivered by Iain Barker. Iain is a human-centred design consultant with three decades experience building design capability.

• Co-founded Meld Studios, a 14-year design consultancy named Good Design Team of the Year in 2022.

• Former Director of Customer Experience Design at Transport for NSW, leading a team of over 60 designers.

• Have run this training in every Australian state, online and in person, as a kick-starter for projects, a team-building session for non-designers, a standalone workshop and part of multi-year uplift programs

The course never stays static. We keep reworking the content to reflect what teams are facing now, including AI in design practice, designing with people experiencing vulnerability, and working within organisational constraints.

What people say

“Thanks for a fun and informative introduction to Human Centered Design. Great facilitation and group activities.”

“So great to see/hear work with optimism and creativity having such meaningful impact in what can otherwise be dry business/gov strategies. Definitely received so many answers to roadblocks in our current customer focus and cultural change. Thank you.”

“This is the only service design course I know of that addresses the intersection between tools, socialisation and organisation/of project activities. You nailed it.”

In-house variations

This training can also be run in-house, from a half day awareness raising to progressive delivery alongside a real-life project, tailored to your people and context.

Other variants that can be run in-house:

• Human-centred design in the public sector: tailored content for policy, service delivery or program teams navigating governance and procurement while putting people at the centre of what they deliver.

• Human-centred design in the built environment: tailored for architects, urban designers and teams in planning, infrastructure and development who want to design with the people who’ll use the places they create.