Adam Karpisz — Lead Product Designera at Goodylabs
Walking the fine line between intuition and insight.
September 4, 2023
12:00
Inspirations & Mindset
🇬🇧 English
Inspirations & Mindset
User is no longer the king: exploring practice-centric design
About
Although it may sound like heresy, user-centered design is slowly becoming outdated and no longer suitable for the complex and dynamic world we live in. This creates space for new design approaches, such as practice-centric design. We will explain what it entails and showcase numerous concrete examples from projects where we have implemented it. In our opinion, a practice-centric approach allows for a better grasp of the context in which a product operates, leading to more profound insights. Interestingly, it is also easily embraced by both internal and external clients. So, are you ready to make the switch?
Watch the full talk
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From the recording
Talk in brief
A Polish-language introduction to practice-centered design, rendered here in English. Rather than treating an individual’s declarations as the center of research, the approach studies recurring activities and the changing relationship between objects, cultural meanings, and know-how. Context determines whether an activity feels like a routine or a ritual, and a product succeeds when it fits that wider arrangement. Cases involving beverages, construction supplies, convenience retail, cosmetics, and energy-saving workplace clothing show how observation can overturn an apparently user-friendly idea. Practice-centered research complements rather than replaces human-centered design, especially during discovery, by using contextual interviews, observation, diaries, and cultural probes to reveal what people actually do.
Key takeaways
- 01
Study recurring activity beyond stated preference
People’s declared values can conflict with what they do in context, so practices provide a stronger unit of discovery than opinion alone.
Watch from 2:57 - 02
Map objects, meanings, and practical know-how
A practice forms through the dynamic relationship between material things, cultural significance, and competence.
Watch from 6:31 - 03
Preserve rituals hidden inside inefficient workflows
An apparently convenient delivery app failed because leaving the building site was a valued social and restorative break.
Watch from 13:34 - 04
Explore the practices that intersect a service
Looking beyond the store journey revealed evening meals, school preparation, and household reconnection as opportunities for retail innovation.
Watch from 16:38 - 05
Fit products to practices that will keep evolving
Design is more likely to succeed when it supports existing patterns and can adapt as context, meanings, and routines change.
Watch from 30:18
Read edited transcript highlights
These concise notes were edited from automatic captions and checked against the talk structure. They are not a verbatim transcript.
A declared value does not fully explain a purchase
Participants who strongly identified with environmental responsibility still bought drinks in ordinary plastic bottles while walking with children because the bottles were light and convenient. The contradiction was not evidence of dishonesty. It showed that values, physical effort, caregiving, available products, and the immediate setting all participate in the practice and can pull behavior in different directions.
Watch from 2:57Practices are changing constellations, not isolated actions
Cycling includes bicycles, roads, clothing, bottles, and navigation apps; it also carries meanings such as mobility, fitness, or environmental care; and it requires practical knowledge about traffic, safety, and social norms. New products enter this entire constellation. A solution can be individually usable yet still fail because it conflicts with the meaning, material conditions, or competence surrounding the activity.
Watch from 6:31Efficiency would have removed the part workers valued
A paint brand considered an app that would send missing supplies directly to construction sites. Observation showed that workers valued leaving the dusty, noisy site, visiting the store, drinking coffee, and talking with staff. Smartphone use was also awkward in the physical environment. The resulting solution supported advance reservation while preserving collection and the social pause embedded in the routine.
Watch from 13:34A store becomes visible through the activities around it
The retail organization already understood transactions inside its stores. Practice-centered research stepped outside that boundary and mapped activities that happened to intersect the shop: going to school or work, meeting again at home, preparing for an evening series, or finding food for a child. This wider frame exposed unmet occasions and product hypotheses that an in-store journey alone could not reveal.
Watch from 16:38Practice fit can guide products without freezing behavior
The approach does not assume that people will adopt a new routine merely because a product seems attractive. It asks how a solution can support a pattern that already exists and which part of that pattern it can responsibly influence. Because materials, meanings, and context continue to change, teams should keep observing after launch and adjust the product rather than treating discovery as a final description.
Watch from 30:18
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