Cognitive Ink’s Human Centred Design via our Pentad of Pathfinding Peregrinators

Some years ago, we got the idea to think about Human Centred Design; not as a sequence of steps, stages or phases of activity, but as a set of characters in an epic story.

We iterated through a massive cast, including: Planner, Scientist, Strategist, Designer, Tester, Mapmaker, Engineer, Marketer, Analyst and more. We also explored many ways of identifying this cast of characters, including: mindsets, persona, roles, agents, actors, design heroes and many others.

As we developed, we kept shifting between design as an activity (Designing) and a character (Designer). But we stuck with seeing design stages as personas, because it brings humanity back into activity, including the goals, perspectives, strengths each role brings. It humanises rather than operationalises.

Thinking in characters also helps us imagine design as an exploratory and evolving adventure, which sometimes creeps forward, sometimes circles and occasionally makes a big leap.

In the end, we settled on an adventuring troupe of five: Project Planner, Experience Explorer, Human Centred Designer, Business Analyst and Innovation Guide. It’s a good tribe, because these are the roles we’ve spent the most time developing. It’s where we’re strongest.

After years of back-of-house development, and over the course of a series of fieldnotes, we want to play out the adventure of how Cognitive Ink’s Pentad of Pathfinding Peregrinators make things better, and make better things.

Join us on the journey.