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Institute for Human Centered Design

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Institute for Human Centered Design

International nonprofit committed to expanding opportunity & enhancing experience for all via design

Our Philosophy

The Institute for Human Centered Design has chosen to use the term "human centered design" as the most representative of our philosophy. We are invested in the international universal design/design-for-all/inclusive design movement but we believe that it is important to be open to complementary ideas that make sense within the simple and open framework of human centered design. Imp

ortant parallel trends today include green design and design for health and healing. We see value in finding the common ground between movements and in working collaboratively. We embrace our ongoing relationship with our traditional allies in disability and aging. We try to be attentive to the spectrum of ability that poses less obvious demands upon design, especially chronic illness and the cognitive spectrum of disability. We believe that the link between chronic illness and/or disability and poverty must catalyze action that includes a new attention to the role of design. With our stated mission of enhancing human experience, we see everyone under the umbrella of human centered design. To borrow from our colleague Ray Lifchez, we see all of design as a "social art" inclusive of urban design, landscape architecture, architecture, interior design, industrial design and information design. Design is also problem-solving and we would extend the usual design disciplines to include policy making.

05/08/2025

This week, we are at The AAM Annual Meeting & Museum Expo!

The museum expo is the only event of its scope and scale. It brings together museums of all types and sizes—from art and history museums to zoos and botanic gardens—to share ideas and make connections that are transformative.

04/28/2025

Join us on May 1 at 12pm ET for a webcast on how the built environment influences health with Ali Heshmati! RSVP on Eventbrite using the link in our bio for access to the Zoom link.

The light around us shapes the rhythms within us. This webinar explores how the built environment influences human health through light’s effect on the circadian system. Drawing from neuroscience and architectural research, Heshmati will present evidence on how light impacts sleep, alertness, mood, cognitive performance, and overall well-being.

03/27/2025

Join us for a compelling conversation on fatphobia and size inclusivity with two acclaimed authors. Feminist philosopher Kate Manne and entrepreneur and advocate Joan Denizot. RSVP on Eventbrite using the link in our bio to get access to the Zoom link.

Joan Denizot, author of Big Body Business, challenges industries to be more inclusive. As the founder of ZIZE Bikes and BodyReady, she has dedicated her career to creating products, spaces, and business strategies that empower people of all sizes. She will discuss the economic and ethical opportunities of size inclusivity and the importance of challenging narratives around fatphobia and success.

In her latest book, Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia, Kate Manne explores fatphobia as a systemic form of oppression and how it intersects with all the other habits of ‘othering’ people. She discusses the real-world harms of fatphobia and how we can combat it by reshaping our world to accommodate people of any size.

Together, Manne and Denizot will discuss:
- Understanding fatphobia and how it functions as systemic oppression
- Ways fatphobia impacts everyday life
- How businesses and industries can actively include and support people of any size
- Practical steps to design society to anticipate and design in big people

03/03/2025

Check out At home with Growing Older’s latest podcast on aging and designing for our future selves featuring IHCD’s Valerie Fletcher! Use the link in our bio to listen, read, download, and review takeaways.

02/04/2025

Join us for a webinar on disability and architecture on Thursday, February 20 at 12pm EST! RSVP through Eventbrite using the link in our bio for access to the Zoom link. Please email [email protected] with any questions or concerns.

A new generation of disability scholars, activists, and designers is developing innovative approaches to accessible built environments, beyond demanding regulatory compliance. This field, known as Critical Access Studies, is questioning the ideological, epistemological, and practical underpinnings of access. Going beyond minimum standards and functional understandings of access, Critical Access has developed rich terminologies and cutting-edge design practices, both of which could transform the ways that architects understand why access matters.

However, the field has made little impact on these disciplines to date. By enabling cross-disciplinary conversations between the disabled experts developing these new concepts and practices, and disabled architects specializing in accessibility, Disability Meets Architecture amplifies the creative potential and practical application of these new ways of thinking and doing accessible design. Through short films, live events, and published materials, this project fills a vital gap in architectural discourses and practices.

Paul DeFazio will be a guest moderator for this session. Paul is an artist and architect holding a Master of Architecture (M.Arch) from Rice University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Paul works with both the Institute for Human Centered Design as Inclusive Architectural Designer & Researcher and as a design researcher with Critical Design Lab.

01/21/2025

IHCD Board of Director’s Member and Acting Inspector General of the US Treasury Richard Delmar awarded Treasury Medal by Secretary Janet Yellen on her last day in office.

01/07/2025

Join us on Wednesday, January 15th for a webinar on universal design in the Nordic region with Camilla Ryhl! RSVP through Eventbrite using the link in our bio for access to the Zoom link. Please email us at [email protected] with any questions or concerns.

Universal design is the prevalent concept used in the Nordic Region, but it is interpreted differently in different architectural practices. In her new book Universal Design in architecture, Ryhl engages in a dialogue with 10 Danish and Norwegian architects about their understanding of universal design and sensory qualities of architecture. The talk will present findings through Nordic architecture cases as well as examples of how sensory experiences can be implemented and strengthened through the use of universal design.

Camilla Ryhl is Research Director at the Bevica Foundation and Head of Universal Design Hub in Copenhagen, Denmark.

She holds a Master’s and a Ph.D. degree in Architecture from the Royal Academy in Copenhagen. She has specialized in universal design and sensory qualities of architecture, as well as interpretation and implementation of universal design as a multidisciplinary principle. She has 20+ years’ experience as a researcher and a teacher, e.g. as Head of the universal design research group at BUILD AAU in Copenhagen, as Ed Roberts Post Doc Scholar at UC Berkeley, where she was also a Fulbright Scholar and as Professor in Universal design at Bergen School of Architecture in Norway.

She is regarded as a leading Nordic expert in the field of universal design.

12/19/2024

IHCD hosted a US State Department delegation through World Boston on Monday, December 16th. Visitors were Mrs. Sosthene Marylene Blanche Yambele, Mr. Agnou Dieudonne, Mrs. Mack Ella Delphine from the Central African Republic.

12/05/2024

Join us on Tuesday, December 10 at 12pm EST for a webinar with Sylvain Denoncin on multisensory wayfinding at the Paris 2024 Olympics! Learn more about this webcast and RSVP using the link in our bio.

Sylvain Denoncin is a French accessibility expert. An international speaker, he has been sharing his expertise in wayfinding and mobility assistive technologies for 15 years. He chairs the Okeenea Group, which encompasses several verticals (building, technology, and digital), a leading French company in accessibility and inclusion. For six years, he served as President of AFPAPH (French Association of Professionals for Accessibility to People with Disabilities) and is currently the association’s Vice President.

In partnership with the French Olympic Committee and Solidéo, Okeenea Group developed a concept for a tactile, sound, and visual orientation table to help people navigate the Athletes’ Village. Placing universal accessibility and quality of life at the core of their approach, they aimed to go beyond mere compliance with standards and regulations, by integrating sensitivity to accessibility issues through different criteria such as considering the needs of the entire population, addressing various perceptual needs, seamlessly fitting into pedestrian pathways and fostering a positive connection to the evolving community.

Descriptive Text:
This event graphic features a headshot of Sylvain Deconin smiling. He has short brown hair and is wearing rectangular glasses and a blue collared shirt. To the right of his photo is a photo of a woman and man smiling at each other while engaging with a multisensory wayfinding map. On the left of this image is a woman with a white cane touching the tactile parts of the map with her hands. She has straight brown hair below shoulder level and is wearing a red and white spotted dress. The man to her right is also touching the map and holding papers between his fingers. He is wearing a brown beret and a navy blue full-zip jacket.

12/03/2024

December 3rd is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

This United Nations tradition began in 1992. It intends to raise awareness and promote the rights and perspectives of persons with disabilities around the world. People with disabilities are one in every six people in the world, 1.3 billion.

In the United States, it is more than one in four adults with a disability, 28.7%, about 71 million people.

At a time when armed conflict and climate change are putting lives around the world at risk, people with disabilities are the likeliest to suffer harm not only from actual injury but from the loss of critical infrastructure of ordinary environments like streets and sidewalks and specialized environments that support people to live the lives they choose. And conflict and climate change also create disabilities for children and adults.

Join us in making Inclusive Design in physical, information, communication, policy and attitudinal environments a core civil and human right. It’s time for a sense of urgency.

10/09/2024

Join us on Tuesday, October 15 at 12pm EST for a webinar with Dr. Sally Augustin! RSVP on Eventbrite with the link in our bio for the Zoom link. Please email [email protected] with any questions or concerns.

Neuroscience research makes it clear: space design can make it more likely that people will think creatively. Now, when one of the prime reasons to return to the office is to generate creative solutions to the challenging problems organizations face, it’s particularly important to put to work what neuroscientists have learned about designing to nurture creativity. How can color, lighting, aesthetics, art, surface materials, furniture, soundscapes, indoor plants, nonverbal messaging, floorplanning, and architecture, for example, be used to encourage creative thinking? How can these design elements, and others, reinforce each other and simultaneously spur creativity? Designers can immediately use the information presented to develop environments that foster creative thinking/problem-solving.

Sally Augustin, PhD, is a practicing environmental psychologist, a principal at Design With Science, and a founder of The Space Doctors. She has extensive experience integrating neuroscience-based insights to develop recommendations for the design of places, objects, and services that support desired cognitive, emotional, and physical outcomes/experiences. Her client base is worldwide and includes organizations and individuals that produce and/or use designed solutions.

08/16/2024

The IHCD team is celebrating all of the hard work we’ve done this summer! We wish the best for our lovely interns as we send them off and are so proud of their impact on our team and clients. 🤗

Address

560 Harrison Avenue, No. 401
Boston, MA
02118

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+1 617-695-1225

Website

http://humancentereddesign.org/

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