Indi Young

Indi Young has done more for reflecting on the people you’re designing for then anyone else I’ve read.

To design and design well, we must listen and listen well. We need to get outside of ourselves, our conceived selves and biases, and meet the person where they are - their home, their work, their lives, so we can accurately capture and reflect on the problem space and any opportunities for change. Through her work on mental models and practical empathy, Indi has had a significant impact on the way that I and other designers approach their design work.

Indi’s work on thinking styles provides an effective way of looking at our users and what their lives look like. Demography-laden personas can only get you so far and don’t go into the vagaries of what drives us: emotions, behaviors, goals, and needs. When we move from (most) descriptors and move toward capturing emotions and behaviors, we can start to make effective change to designed experience. Thinking styles provide for movement - a reminder that thoughtful consideration is required to understand where people are and to consider the possibilities and potentialities of where they can go.

Indi is well known for her writings:

Practical Empathy: For Collaboration and Creativity in Your Work (2015).
Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior (2008).