Methods and Benefits of Measuring Human-Centered Design in Global Health

Area of Science:

• Global Health
• Human-Centered Design
• Monitoring and Evaluation

Background:

• Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is crucial in global health for program design, performance monitoring, and impact evaluation.
• Human-centered design (HCD) is increasingly integrated into global health, necessitating adaptation of traditional M&E approaches.
• There is a need to explore the integration of measurement within HCD practices in global health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the integration of measurement within human-centered design (HCD) in global health.
• To illustrate the inherent tensions between HCD and M&E approaches in global health.
• To extract learning on how measurement is used, for what purpose, and to what effect in design-influenced global health interventions.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of three recent design-influenced global health interventions (product, behavior change, service improvement).
• Utilizing framing from the MeasureD project to audit measurement practices in HCD (social design).
• Comparing examples and recent experiences to identify steps toward aligning measurement use.

Main Results:

• Identified tensions in measurement approaches between global health and HCD practitioners.
• Demonstrated how measurement was used in product, behavior change, and service improvement interventions.
• Highlighted strategies for managing tensions and advancing measurement in HCD-influenced global health programming.

Conclusions:

• Greater alignment in measurement use is being pursued to advance human-centered global health programming.
• Integrating M&E with HCD requires adapting traditional measurement practices.
• Learning from practical examples is key to effective measurement in design-influenced global health initiatives.