Design
Human-centred design is for businesses of any size who are interested in early-stage innovation strategy. For start-ups, strategic design helps get brilliant ideas to the right market. For established businesses, it helps reposition or expand their offering.
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People make logical decisions in the pursuit of science, technology and commerce. People are also emotional beings, and those emotions can drive us far harder than reason. When business success is dependent on human behaviour to do the right thing, your business should seek support from human-centred designers.
By focusing on what people need, how people behave, what they aspire to, businesses can use these key insights to achieve greater success in the market.
The Design in Innovation team at Innovate UK KTN can help you whether you are:
- A designer looking for opportunities to engage with businesses on activities needing human-centred design support
- A business wanting to understand how to deploy human-centred design in your business
- A business wondering whether human-centred design might be a valuable capability to add into your R&D portfolio
Specifically you might want to:
- Look for funding and opportunities to apply design in different sectors and industries
- Find a designer with the right expertise to collaborate with and help your business develop
- Get some quick insights about how companies are best utilising human centred design in their R&D
You can also keep up to date with news, funding and events across the Design sector by connecting with the Innovate UK KTN Design Foundations group on LinkedIn.

Our current focus in this area
Related Opportunities
Net Zero Living: User focused design
Opens: 01/08/2023 Closes: 04/10/2023
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £3.8m to support them in developing net zero products or services.
More Information
Innovation Exchange challenge: Contacting Priority Service Register Customers Without Mobile Phones During Power Cuts
Opens: 04/09/2023 Closes: 13/10/2023
UK Power Networks is looking to find a reliable method to communicate with priority services register customers during a power cut.
More Information
SSPP: Liquid food and beverages in refillable packaging
Opens: 18/09/2023 Closes: 25/10/2023
Up to £1.5m available to demonstrate a reuse or refill packaging system for liquid food and beverage products, at scale, in a retail chain.