User-Centered Thinking in Product Design Ignores the Effect a Product has on the Other Actors in the System

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Narrowing our thinking about users of products can have drawbacks.
It's important to consider how people who are not users of our products are affected.
Thinking only about individuals might leave out differing behaviors or impacts on people as groups or segments or populations.
It's important to consider populations that are marginalized when engaging in product design.
Edtech developed in the education space is often agnostic to who are under-resourced students and who aren't.

Sheryl Cababa is the Chief Strategy Officer of Substantial, an experience design consultancy based in Seattle. She’s the author of Closing the Loop, a new book about systems thinking in design. The book emphasizes the role designers can play as catalysts for social change, and that is the focus of our conversation.

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Rosenfeld Media provided a review copy of Sheryl’s book.

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