Human-centered design is an approach to making products, services, or communications that starts with the people who will use them: their context, limits, and goals — then iterates until the thing actually helps.
It overlaps with UX and Design Thinking (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test), and it depends on user research rather than studio taste. Ethics are part of the job: a layout can include or exclude, clarify or manipulate. Accessibility and usability are how that responsibility shows up in pixels — designing with people, not only for a client slide. In the business, the same stance shows up as being customer centric.
A real-life example of human-centered design
A parking app for downtown Atlanta designed in a quiet office assumes everyone has a credit card on file and perfect GPS. People who park there pay cash, share a phone, or can’t read a six-step flow while holding a toddler. Talking to them — then testing a simpler pay-and-go path — is human-centered. Shipping the six-step flow because it looked clever in Figma is not.
Measure whether it informs, includes, and produces the intended outcome. For the argument and ethics, see What Is Human-Centered Design?.