Know Thy User: Why National Security Needs User-Centered Design
In the national security space, anticipating the complex and ever-evolving threats that face joint all-domain operations is key to finding real-world solutions advancing the U.S. and allied nations in Great Power Competition and Strategic Competition. It also helps natsec professionals anticipate future adversaries and build a better, more agile, force of the future. National security as an industry is asking the same questions that we all are: What technology, people and ideas will shape the future? What does the future look like and how can we best prepare ourselves?
This is where Human Centered Design, (HCD), is an invaluable tool in national security. The world does not consist of isolated instances of fighters and localized conflicts. It is instead a global network of complex problems that will take more than hardware and new technology developments to understand. Science and technology alone can’t resolve the complexities of humanity. HCD, however, is a tool that allows for changes as our needs change. It could be the missing tool.
What is Human Centered Design
Evolving out of consumer product innovation, Human Centered Design, is a hands-on method that solves complex problems by approaching them not through the eyes of the developer but through the eyes of users and stakeholders.
That’s significant because it connects systems design with actual user needs, focusing on the consumer rather than the developer. To put it simply, HCD takes humans into account every step of the way. Behaviors, desires, strengths and weaknesses, and all their subtle nuances are all factored into the process and considered. Humanity is never forgotten.
Beyond Acquisition and Analysis
So, what will the world look like in 2025, 2030 or even 2050 and will the U.S. be able to defend itself from perceived threats and adversaries? If so, how and at what cost? Answering the not-so-simple questions facing the natsec community requires new strategies beyond conversation and technology procurement.
The Department of Defense has already acknowledged it can’t modernize without the help of tech, academia, and industry. The Intelligence Community (IC) also points to disruptive technology as a significant and needed geopolitical tool in the 2021 Threat Assessment.
National security professionals must develop solutions that are strategically competitive in order to out-pace adversaries, looking beyond acquisition and analysis. Bottom line is that it’s not enough to just “know thy audience” and invest in new hardware and software if the humans in the loop aren’t prioritized.
Planners and analysts in the natsec space can use HCD to take their analysis and assessments a step further, empathizing with the actual users, anticipating how they might operate within a system, and understanding why they make certain choices. The bottom line is that how humans might use (and mis-use) a system is pretty important but also a very human-centered issue.
While design does have a growing footprint in the natsec community and in DoD, most notably in Special Operations Forces (SOF), it is small. According to tech community BuiltIn, HCD’s strength is “prioritizing the understanding of human behavior and the problem at hand, empathizing with the affected group and creating innovative products and systems that can be adapted as their needs change.” Rather than focusing on predictability, which can be dangerously fickle, HCD centers on readiness and agility, two key elements crucial to success in 21st century strategic environments and advancing in Great Power Competition.
Instead of asking “how can we use X to solve this problem” those in national security should begin problem solving by the perquisite, “Do we have a clear understanding of the problem in the first place?” “Do we have the “right” perspective that allows us to see the problem from the user’s point of view?” “How might we we build a solution in a way that meets the needs of the user, whether it be defense analyst, planner, SOF Operator, etc?” Human Centered Design can help us not only ask these questions, but work through them in a way that is the most effective for the people on the ground doing the work.
HCD and #NATSEC
Whether the end user is a SOF operator, intelligence analyst, joint-operations planner or senior leader, optimizing the human experience yields a unique opportunity for constructive disruption and innovation.
At a SOFWERX HCD event in 2021, HCD Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) contributed to a technology roadmap development project, and noted that HCD allows for “optimizing user experience with tools for global situational awareness providing an opening for injecting disruptive technology and accelerating capabilities for joint solutions.”
One could argue HCD holds strategic economy-of-force value because it provides an advantage in strategic competition when human behavior and needs are taken into account. It’s also helpful in mitigating costly mistakes which often omit the user experience.
HCD can be used to address a number of issues facing natsec ranging from prototyping to D&I and ethical issues. That’s significant and very useful.
What’s Next for Natsec
Ultimately, the federal government can gather all the tanks, carriers and fighter jets in the world, buy up all the cutting edge software, and commission the most futuristic hardware developers can imagine. But unless we ask the right questions and design empathetic systems with the user in mind, we’ll still be largely unarmed in the 21st century battlefield and and at a strategic disadvantage heading into a post covid defense environment.
We have work to do and Human Centered Design can help us do it.
At TIL, this is an everyday practice for us. We specialize in Human Centered Interactive Innovation. We develop use User Centered Design techniques for fast prototyping, experiential testing, and development leading emerging technologies in our fields of expertise. Our team’s broad set of disciplines allows us to deliver unique solutions to even the toughest challenges. Our love for collaboration helps organizations innovate, engage with their customers, and unlock possibilities.
Visit us at theinclab.com to learn more.
About the author
Karla Mastracchio is a Communication Subject Matter Expert (SME) with over a decade working in the defense and start-up spaces. She is also a published author and nationally recognized expert in branding, political communication and cultural studies. You can find her playing with her two rescue dogs and zipping around the island of Oahu where she currently resides.
