About

Bruce Hanington is a Professor of design at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Design. His teaching has included undergraduate courses in Human Centered Design and Industrial Design Studio, as well as graduate courses in Research Methods and Design Principles and Practices. His research and practice focus on methods and practices for human centered design, with an emphasis on design ethnography, participatory design, and the meaning of form in context. Bruce has held various leadership roles such as Head of School, Director of Graduate Studies, Director of Executive Education, and Program Chair of Industrial Design. He has also taught professional education workshops and micro courses to diverse organizations including Tepper MBA students, the Heinz College, the Software Engineering Institute, Highmark, the Pittsburgh Food Bank, and the United States Air Force Academy. His past projects include research work with GE on human-centered appliances and with Johnson & Johnson on enhancing prescription skin care compliance among teens. Bruce has presented at international conferences and his work has been published in multiple design journals and books. He is also a co-author of the book 'Universal Methods of Design,' which has been published in nine languages.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Physics

Selected publications

• Empathy, Values, and Situated Action

  Routledge eBooks · 2024

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Psychology
  • Artificial Intelligence

  Human centered design (HCD) or user centered design (UCD) is an integrated research and design approach led by the motivation to responsibly and responsively address the genuine needs and desires of people affected by design intervention. The approach stands in contrast to technology-led or purely commercial, marketing driven approaches, and extends throughout the design process through a set of creative research methods and processes aimed at enhancing design outcomes and therefore human lives affected by design. Contextualizing human centered design in terms of sustainability would assume changing situations into those preferred not only by individual users, but also by communities of people, society at large, and with respect for the natural environment. This chapter provides a context for human centered design through a brief history and overview of currently defined practice, coupled with a more specific understanding of the approach motivated toward sustainability. Methods for conducting human centered research and design will be discussed, highlighting those with greatest potential in the context of sustainability. A framework of four levels of human centered design aimed at sustainable change will be presented. In conclusion, benefits and outcomes of human centered design will be discussed, including critique and future of the approach.

  PublisherDOI

• Empathy, Values, and Situated Action

  2017-07-28

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Empathy, Values, and Situated Action

  2017-07-28 · 6 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Human centered design (HCD), or user centered design (UCD), is an integrated research and design approach led by the motivation to responsibly and responsively address the genuine needs and desires of people affected by design intervention. Aside from specific terminology, human centered design is not entirely new. The evolution of tools, shelter, clothing and other products aimed at meeting human needs and conditions obviously have a lengthy history. Methods of human centered research and design that are appropriately focused on sustainable behaviors and concerns are inherently participatory, contextual and creative. The potential of human centered sustainable design lays in the creation of products and services that motivate or empower people to action, in harmony with the planet and other living things. Human centered design can be used to create sustainable products, communications and environments. The individual view of human centered design is oriented around the mantra of useful, usable, and desirable, and is perhaps the most traditional and well-established approach.

  PublisherDOI

• Design sprints and substance: Assessing the spectrum of design education opportunities for non-designers

  2017-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Design education opportunities for non-designers are abundant and growing, many offered as rapid sprints through executive education style workshops or online courses. While these quick immersions ...

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• List of Contributors

  Elsevier eBooks · 2017-01-01

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Design and Emotional Experience

  Elsevier eBooks · 2017-01-01 · 15 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Design Studio Desk and Shared Place Attachments: A Study on Ownership, Personalization, and Agency.

  Proceedings of DRS · 2016-06-27 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Increasing numbers of students, limited space, and decreasing budgets nudge many university administrators to shift from assigned design studio desks to flexible workspace arrangements. This paper explores student attachment to the individual desk and shared spaces in a graduate design studio in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. The studio had four interconnected spaces with: individual desks, collaborative workspaces, a kitchen-social cafe area, and a distance- learning classroom. We explored student perspectives and attitudes on studio aesthetics, functionality, agency, ownership, personalization, and occupancy patterns with four methods (i.e., online survey, student class schedules, interviews, time-lapse study). Perception of ownership, personalization, and agency were greatest for individual desks. Students perceived the individual desk as a primary territory even though the administration said desks were shared hot-desks. Individual work and collaborative work occurred throughout the studio regardless of functional assignment (e.g., spaces for individual work, collaboration, classroom).

  PublisherDOI

• Making Methods Work: 10 Rules of Thumb for Design Research

  Archives of Design Research · 2015-02-28 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Background : This paper outlines ten rules of thumb, or heuristics, for conducting good research in the context of human centered design. The subject matter is situated in design education within the structure of the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. To further set context, a process common to the School is framed in terms of Exploratory, Generative, and Evaluative research and design. Methods : The ten rules of thumb were extracted from several years of research and design projects conducted by students and faculty in the School of Design. A common example of the rules of thumb employed through the research and design process is exhibited in projects executed in the graduate Master of Design course, Research Methods for Design. This course is linked to a Studio project course, such that methods are taught “just in time” for application in a full semester long, team-based client project. Students are prompted with an open-ended design brief that varies each year. Results : The ten heuristics are, to Set boundaries; Immerse yourself; Engage your stakeholders; Work in context; Work in teams; Be creative; Integrate research and design; Use both sides of your brain; Triangulate; and Be credible. Examples of research methods and approaches ideally suited to fulfilling each rule of thumb are used to illustrate the heuristics and provide practical guidance for design applications. The paper is concluded with a sample project from the School of Design, highlighting the process framework, rules of thumb, and application of various research and design methods. Conclusion : Although not comprehensive, the ten rules of thumb, each presented with a brief definition, justification, and sample methods, are intended to guide a valid, productive, and enjoyable human centered research and design process, with a goal of achieving excellence in design outcomes through a well bounded, immersive and engaging, contextual, team-based, creative, integrated rational and intuitive process utilizing a triangulated set of credible research methods.

  PublisherDOI

• An Evidence-Based Design approach for function, usability, emotion, and pleasure in studio redesign

  Proceedings of DRS · 2014-06-16 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Studio-based design education is changing to include multidisciplinary design teams, geographically distributed teams, information technology, and new work styles. In this paper, we present the research findings from a graduate studio redesign using an Evidence-Based Design approach with measures and outcomes for function, pleasure, and the emotional needs of users. Located in a design school at a research university in the United States, we conducted four types of pre- and post-occupancy measures: observations, interviews, surveys, and diary studies. Six issues informed studio redesign: Aesthetics, Acoustics, Collaboration, Faculty Interaction, Sociability, and Stewardship. We transformed a single room design studio into four interconnected spaces: an area with individual workspaces, collaborative spaces, a kitchen and social cafe area, and a classroom with distance learning technology. Student satisfaction significantly improved in the new studio according to survey results. Some participants’ open-ended survey comments suggest that functional needs were met, but some pleasure-related and emotional needs linked to habitation were problematic. Claiming of individual workspaces and limited social norms were linked to mixed positive and negative responses on aesthetics and acoustics. Collaborative and social spaces, where there is no expectation of ownership, had uniformly positive results in both closed- and open-ended survey results.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Relevant and Rigorous: Human-Centered Research and Design Education

  Design Issues · 2010-07-01 · 27 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  July 01 2010 Relevant and Rigorous: Human-Centered Research and Design Education Bruce M. Hanington Bruce M. Hanington Bruce Hanington is an Associate Professor and Program Chair of Industrial Design in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. His research and teaching encompasses the personal, social, and cultural context of product design and interpretation, the meaning of form, human factors and ethnographic and participatory research methods. He has consulted on design projects with GE Appliance and Johnson and Johnson. His work has been published in Design Issues, The Design Journal, and Interactions, with chapters in Designing Inclusive Futures, and Design and Emotion: The Experience of Everyday Things. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Bruce M. Hanington Bruce Hanington is an Associate Professor and Program Chair of Industrial Design in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. His research and teaching encompasses the personal, social, and cultural context of product design and interpretation, the meaning of form, human factors and ethnographic and participatory research methods. He has consulted on design projects with GE Appliance and Johnson and Johnson. His work has been published in Design Issues, The Design Journal, and Interactions, with chapters in Designing Inclusive Futures, and Design and Emotion: The Experience of Everyday Things. Online ISSN: 1531-4790 Print ISSN: 0747-9360 © 2010 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2010 Design Issues (2010) 26 (3): 18–26. https://doi.org/10.1162/DESI_a_00026 Cite Icon Cite Permissions Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Search Site Citation Bruce M. Hanington; Relevant and Rigorous: Human-Centered Research and Design Education. Design Issues 2010; 26 (3): 18–26. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/DESI_a_00026 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll JournalsDesign Issues Search Advanced Search This content is only available as a PDF. © 2010 Massachusetts Institute of Technology2010 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

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Frequent coauthors

• Jodi Forlizzi

  Carnegie Mellon University

  4 shared

• Andrea Gaggioli

  Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

  3 shared

• Carl DiSalvo

  Georgia Institute of Technology

  3 shared

• Paul Wormald

  National University of Singapore

  2 shared

• J Mark Porter

  2 shared

• Ralph Bruder

  Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg

  2 shared

• Peter Scupelli

  2 shared

• A Bennett

  Hy-Line (United States)

  2 shared