RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Methods and Benefits of Measuring Human-Centered Design in Global Health
JF Global Health: Science and Practice
JO GLOB HEALTH SCI PRACT
FD Johns Hopkins University- Global Health. Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Communication Programs
SP S274
OP S282
DO 10.9745/GHSP-D-21-00207
VO 9
IS Supplement 2
A1 Heller, Cheryl
A1 LaFond, Anne
A1 Murthy, Lakshmi
YR 2021
UL http://www.ghspjournal.org/content/9/Supplement_2/S274.abstract
AB Key MessagesIntegrating human-centered design (HCD) and global health requires new approaches to managing measurement across multidisciplinary project teams that: Optimize the rigor of public health monitoring and evaluationIntroduce appropriate measurement into creative HCD approaches without compromising the types of learning that HCD can uniquely provideTensions can emerge in the ways that HCD and global health approach measurement, but these can be addressed by appreciating the value of iterative learning, combining measurement approaches, and increasing transparency and documentation.To be relevant and effective in HCD-influenced health programming, global health practitioners and evaluators should adapt the timing and approach of traditional measurement approaches, integrate metrics that reflect user experience and desires, and use methods that facilitate adaptation and learning as well as assess performance and impact.Monitoring and evaluation (M&E), a new frontier for human-centered design (HCD), is still largely unexplored. In global health, M&E is considered essential to good practice, and evidence and data are critical tools in program design, performance monitoring, impact evaluation, and adaptation and learning. As HCD is increasingly integrated into global health practice, designers and global health practitioners are learning as they go how to integrate measurement into design and adapt traditional M&E approaches to design-influenced global health projects. This article illustrates some of the tensions inherent in the way global health and HCD practitioners approach measurement, using several cases to illustrate the ways in which tensions can be managed. Using framing introduced by the MeasureD project, which aimed to audit measurement practices in HCD (called social design in the MeasureD project), we explore 3 recent examples of design-influenced global health interventions: 1 focusing on products, 1 on behavior change, and 1 on service improvement, to extract learning about how teams used measurement, for what purpose, and to what effect. In comparing these examples and recent experience, we report on the steps being taken toward greater alignment in the use of measurement to advance human-centered global health programming.