Human-Centred Design Plan Template (ISO 9241-210)

Human-centred design plan: scope and goals, HCD principles as commitments, activities across the life cycle, roles, risks, evidence checklist

设计与 UX标准ISO 9241-210:2019human centred plan更新于 2026年10月29日

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使用方法: Use it at project start to plan user involvement across the life cycle. Fill the activity table with owners, timing and outputs first. The main pitfall is putting all user involvement into one test just before launch.

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Human-Centred Design Plan: [Product or project name]

A plan for the human-centred design (HCD) activities of one project across its life cycle: how the team will understand the context of use, specify user requirements, produce design solutions and evaluate them with users, who is responsible, when each activity happens and what evidence it leaves. Structure aligned with ISO 9241-210:2019 (second edition, July 2019), clause 5 (principles), clause 6 (planning) and clause 7 (activities). ISO 9241-210 is a paid standard: this template cites its clause numbers and uses original wording. Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example. Worked examples use Quillmere Libraries, a fictional city library service rebuilding its borrowing app.

Document control

Field	Value
Document ID	[HCD-001]
Version	[1.0]
Status	[Draft / Approved / Active / Closed]
Owner (HCD lead)	[@design-lead]
Approvers / reviewers	[@product-owner], [@project-manager], [@engineering-lead]
Last updated	YYYY-MM-DD
Classification	[Internal]
Project plan	[link or document ID]
Life cycle model	[Example: agile delivery in two-week sprints with quarterly releases]

Revision history

Version	Date	Author	Change
0.1	YYYY-MM-DD	[@name]	First draft
1.0	YYYY-MM-DD	[@name]	Approved at project start gate

1. Scope and goals

Item	Value
System in scope	[Example: Quillmere Libraries borrowing app, iOS and Android, and its web version]
User groups	[Example: adult borrowers, parents borrowing for children, older borrowers, assistive technology users, branch staff who help borrowers]
Other stakeholders	[Example: branch managers, IT operations, accessibility officer]
Usability goals	[Example: 80% of borrowers reserve a title and change its pick-up branch unaided; SUS mean at or above 68]
Accessibility goal	[Example: conform to WCAG 2.2 level AA; see design/accessibility-checklist]
Out of scope	[Example: staff back-office system]

2. HCD principles for this project

Principle (paraphrased)	Project commitment	Evidence
Design is based on an explicit understanding of users, tasks and environments	[Example: context of use documented before design starts]	Context of use description, personas
Users are involved throughout design and development	[Example: borrowers take part in every release cycle]	Session logs, recruitment records
Design is driven and refined by user-centred evaluation	[Example: no release without a usability test of changed flows]	Usability test reports
The process is iterative	[Example: at least two test-and-revise loops per major flow]	Revision history of designs and reports
Design addresses the whole user experience	[Example: branch pick-up and notifications are in scope, not only screens]	Journey map
The team has multidisciplinary skills and perspectives	[Example: research, design, engineering, accessibility and branch staff in reviews]	Team list, review attendance

3. HCD activities and schedule

ID	Activity	Phase and timing	Method	Owner	Output
ACT-01 (Example)	Understand and specify the context of use	Discovery, sprints 1 to 3	Interviews, branch visits, analytics review	[@researcher]	design/research-interview-guide, design/research-synthesis, product/persona
ACT-02 (Example)	Specify user requirements	Discovery, sprint 4	Requirements workshop from insights	[@product-owner]	User requirements with IDs and acceptance criteria (product/user-story)
ACT-03 (Example)	Produce design solutions	Alpha, sprints 5 to 10	Sketches, prototypes, design system components	[@designer]	Prototypes, design/design-system updates
ACT-04 (Example)	Evaluate designs: expert review	Each sprint	Heuristic evaluation	[@designer]	design/heuristic-evaluation
ACT-05 (Example)	Evaluate designs: user testing	Sprints 7 and 10, then each release	Moderated usability tests	[@researcher]	design/usability-test-plan, design/usability-test-report
ACT-06 (Example)	Evaluate accessibility	Sprint 10 and each release	Checklist review and assistive technology testing	[@accessibility-officer]	design/accessibility-checklist, quality/accessibility-audit
ACT-07 (Example)	Monitor in use	After release	Support tickets, feedback, analytics	[@product-owner]	Release review, inputs to ACT-01

4. Roles, resources and integration

Item	Plan
HCD lead and authority	[Example: design lead; can block a release when a severity 4 usability problem is open]
Team	[Example: 1 researcher, 2 designers, accessibility officer at 20%]
Participant budget	[Example: 40 participants per year, incentives and recruitment fees]
Tools	[Example: prototyping tool, remote session tool, research repository]
Integration with delivery	[Example: research and test findings enter the backlog with an ID; sprint review includes a user evidence slot]
Gate criteria	[Example: beta gate needs ACT-05 report with no open severity 3 or 4 problems in core tasks]

5. Risks and dependencies

ID	Risk	Mitigation
HCDR-01 (Example)	Recruitment of older and assistive technology users is slow	Partner with branch staff and local disability organisations early
HCDR-02 (Example)	Findings arrive after sprint commitments	Test one sprint ahead of build; keep a findings slot in planning
HCDR-03 (Example)	Research data protection approval delays fieldwork	Reuse approved design/research-consent-form; book privacy review in sprint 1

6. Conformance and evidence checklist

HCD plan approved and linked from the project plan.
Context of use documented and reviewed with users or user representatives.
User requirements recorded with IDs and traced to design and evaluation.
At least two evaluate-and-revise loops completed for each core flow.
Usability and accessibility goals in section 1 measured and reported.
Open user-related issues tracked to closure or accepted with a reason.
Lessons learned recorded at project close.

Standard and licence note

Structure aligned with ISO 9241-210:2019, Ergonomics of human-system interaction, Part 210: Human-centred design for interactive systems, second edition, July 2019 (ISO lists it as confirmed at its 2025 review), clauses 5, 6 and 7. ISO 9241-210 is a paid publication: this template cites its name, edition and clause numbers only, and all wording is original. Official text: ISO, purchase or licensed access: https://www.iso.org/standard/77520.html. Check the current official version before relying on it. WCAG 2.2: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/. Template licence: MIT.