Extremes & Mainstreams
Maria Isabel Garcia and Laura Lloyd, Healthy Teen Network
The empathize phase of human-centered design is an opportunity to listen and learn from the design’s end users. During this process, it can be natural to focus on the mainstream users, or the ones whose needs and experiences fall in the middle of the spectrum. By considering extreme users—whose experiences sit at the edges of the end-user population—designers can bring their voices into the design process as well.
This tip sheet explores how to identify extreme users and apply the experiences of both extreme and mainstream users to the design process.
The Healthy Teen Network In/Tend Incubator Hub is supported by the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $1,886,783 with 100 percent funded by OPA/OASH/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, OPA/OASH/HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit opa.hhs.gov.
