Human-Centered Design (HCD) is a problem-solving approach that places human needs, behaviors, and experiences at the forefront of addressing complex, transdisciplinary challenges in healthcare systems, public health, and medicine.
This introductory, practice-based HCD course uses a dynamic, experiential learning format to guide students through the full design process—from initial framing and discovery to solution development. Within each phase, students will learn and apply methods focused on building empathy, translating user needs into actionable solution requirements, creative ideation, rapid prototyping and testing, and planning for real-world implementation. The course also emphasizes the complementarity of HCD with implementation science practice.
This is a rigorous, fast-paced course designed to simulate real-world design environments. Students work in small, diverse teams, each paired with an expert design coach. Teams meet weekly in live, online Design Labs and collaborate using virtual platforms to advance their projects. Success in this course requires active engagement: students are expected to participate in all live Design Labs and actively contribute to teamwork.
Faculty are intentional in making this course accessible to busy professionals across multiple time zones. Weekly live Design Labs are scheduled with flexibility to meet the needs of each cohort of students.
For those ready to bring curiosity, creativity, and dedication to HCD, this course offers a unique opportunity to develop practical skills that can create lasting, impactful change.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, learners will be able to:
- Articulate the purpose and principles of human-centered design as a problem-solving approach
- Describe the phases of the design process, including key activities and objectives within each phase
- Explain how implementation science principles can complement and enhance human-centered design methods
- Demonstrate basic skills in using design methods to address a real-world healthcare problem
Audience
Clinicians, public health practitioners, healthcare and health services researchers seeking foundational knowledge and practical skills in applying human-centered design methods.
Offered: Fall Term
Prerequisites
Recommended: training or experience in public health, quality improvement, or healthcare organization leadership.
Course Directors
Meghana Gadgil, MD, MPH, FACP, FHM, is an Associate Professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the Division of Hospital Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital, and faculty in the Division of Health Policy and Management at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
She holds dual bachelor's degrees and a Master of Public Health from UC Berkeley. Dr. Gadgil completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University, where she was part of the Global Health Track.
Since 2015, Dr. Gadgil has actively applied Human-Centered Design (HCD) methods to address complex challenges in healthcare delivery, health systems innovation, public health, and medical education. She has led and contributed to numerous HCD projects focused on chronic disease management, health equity, and care delivery redesign across diverse settings.
A dedicated and experienced educator, Dr. Gadgil has been inducted into the UCSF Academy of Medical Educators in recognition of her excellence in teaching and mentorship. She teaches and mentors learners across disciplines and institutions, sharing her expertise in HCD, health policy, chronic disease, nutrition, and climate change resilience.
Jan Yeager, MDes, is lead service designer in the Clinical Innovation Center at UCSF with over 20 years of expertise in human-centered design.
She works within multidisciplinary teams to understand both the human and the system factors associated with complex health system problems, to develop new care pathways and services, and to improve patient experience.
In her role, Jan focuses on accelerating innovation across the UCSF care delivery system employing a combination of systems thinking, behavior change theory, and technical expertise in insight generation, human factors, visual modeling, and prototyping. Jan holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of Arizona, a BFA in Communications Design from Pratt Institute, and a MDes in Human-Centered Design from the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology.
Course Requirements
Required Textbook: None
Learners are expected to complete assigned readings, view lecture videos, and use tools to demonstrate progress on weekly design activities. In addition, learners are expected to actively participate in weekly virtual design labs to advance solutions, deliver a presentation/report on a final solution, and complete course evaluations.
Completing this course will take an estimated 5-7 hours of work per module, over 10 modules.
In order to receive a course completion certificate, learners are expected to:
- Turn in weekly assignments by their due dates
- Actively participate in design activities and weekly design labs
- Produce an oral presentation that explains the problem to be solved, the path taken to solve the problem (design methods used), the design of the solution, and the proposal for implementation.
Students who are not able to actively participate in design activities (including using the provided tools to demonstrate progress on their design) will be dropped, but will have the option to re-take the course in the future. Course fees will not be refunded.