Abstract
Human-centred design is an essential element of the application of design in public and social sectors. What has remained largely unexpressed in the field is the way in which design is influenced by how we see humans, and how that is informed by our worldviews and dominant paradigms. In this conceptual paper, we investigate five common views on humans – user, worker, fallible individual, consumer, and whole and social being - based on four dimensions. The dimensions include 1) depth, 2) personal focus, 3) social focus, and 4) level of agency. Based on a case study of youth unemployment, we show how such views can lead to fundamentally different types of designs. We discuss the need to include the image of humans as a topic in stakeholder conversations. We conclude with arguing for a holistic and social perspective on humans when design is aimed at fundamentally addressing complex societal challenges.
Keywords
human-centred design; public sector; complexity; agency
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.516
Citation
van der Bijl-Brouwer, M., and Winhall, J. (2026) Images of humans in public sector design, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.516
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Images of humans in public sector design
Human-centred design is an essential element of the application of design in public and social sectors. What has remained largely unexpressed in the field is the way in which design is influenced by how we see humans, and how that is informed by our worldviews and dominant paradigms. In this conceptual paper, we investigate five common views on humans – user, worker, fallible individual, consumer, and whole and social being - based on four dimensions. The dimensions include 1) depth, 2) personal focus, 3) social focus, and 4) level of agency. Based on a case study of youth unemployment, we show how such views can lead to fundamentally different types of designs. We discuss the need to include the image of humans as a topic in stakeholder conversations. We conclude with arguing for a holistic and social perspective on humans when design is aimed at fundamentally addressing complex societal challenges.