WIA Cafe: Carin-Centered Design: Designing for my Mom

What happens when your toughest usability test is… your mom? This talk shares how everyday observations with my mother—who won’t use passwords, doesn't speak numbers, and refuses to “learn the system”—sparked a pink poster, a podcast series, and a deeper understanding of human-centered design.

Titled “Carin-Centered Design: Designing for my Mom” the poster stood out at IAC not with charts or peer-reviewed findings, but with honesty and empathy. It told the story of designing for one very real, very relatable user—and how that can be more powerful than a thousand data points.

This talk expands on that idea: what happens when you treat a loved one as a real user, not an edge case? Why do we assume some behaviors are “normal” while others are “extreme”? We all have quirks. I may have printed every reading in grad school, but am I so different from my mom, who won’t use a passcode?

Design doesn’t have to be sleek. It has to be human.


Event format: Short talk (20 min + 10 min Q&A)

Speaker bio:

David Taylor is the reluctant technologist here to champion the everyman. His approach is rooted in curiosity, failure, and humor. When he’s the subject of conversation, you might overhear an enthusiastic “Hire this man!” but it may just be hearsay.

As a graduate from Brigham Young University and the University of Washington’s iSchool, his unique background blends advertising communication with the information sciences. For the past decade, he has worked in newspaper print publishing, corporate communications, and privacy policy management consulting. His expertise includes a suite of human-centered design methodologies such as journey maps, taxonomies, card sorts, user interviews, and survey design. Some professional areas of interest include accessibility, service design, plain language writing, videogames, and child safety.

David loves writing, field research, and his mother. He does not love sudden noises, snow, or finance.


LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiredavidtaylor/

Website: https://daviddot.com/ See less