Why Human‑Centered Design Is the New Must‑Have for Software Teams

According to a recent Progress Software report surveying 700 developers and IT leaders, more than 50% of organizations intend to increase spending on human‑centered software development, emphasizing the creation of applications that are inclusive for users with diverse physical and cognitive abilities.

Progress notes that while technology drives the digital world, many experiences lack the skill of human‑centric design, resulting in clunky, inaccessible interfaces that especially hinder people with disabilities.

The report identifies five core pillars of human‑centered software:

It must be trustworthy.

It should be simple, intuitive, enjoyable, and inclusive.

It must be usable by everyone.

It should offer rich functionality.

Seventy‑six percent of respondents believe that human‑centered software has become more important than two years ago due to commercial opportunities and cultural shifts.

Organizations focus on five critical steps:

Define user needs and problems.

Ideation.

Empathy with users.

Testing.

Prototyping.

Although many companies rate their maturity as low or medium, 57% claim they fully apply design‑thinking principles when creating frameworks, indicating a gap between perception and actual practice that calls for stronger self‑assessment and rigorous internal benchmarking.

Nearly all respondents (97%) report challenges in adopting human‑centered design, including meeting customer demands, complexity or lack of agility, difficulty measuring outcomes, insufficient tool investment, and limited cross‑team collaboration during development.

Progress recommends the following actions for successful implementation:

Upskill existing talent.

Increase diversity in hiring.

Conduct self‑assessments to set realistic goals.

Adopt cohesive design principles and tools.

In conclusion, the window for building an inclusive, sustainable, human‑centered digital world is closing; companies that delay investment in accessible user experiences risk being overtaken by more proactive competitors.

Editor: 万能的大雄