Human-Centered Performance Management for Designers

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2022-02

Type of Work

Department

University of Baltimore. Division of Science, Information Arts and Technologies

Program

University of Baltimore. Master of Science in Interaction Design and Information Architecture

Citation of Original Publication

Rights

Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States
This item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is made available by the University of Baltimore for non-commercial research and educational purposes.

Abstract

The performance evaluation is ubiquitous in industry, but is sometimes regarded as an outdated tool. In particular, performance evaluations often fail to collect a true picture of a designer’s value, fail to support the design manager in providing valuable management of the designer’s performance, and fail to provide the design manager with the tools they need to advocate for design within the organization. This research explores what designers and design managers need for the evaluation to become a useful tool. Using a Human-Centered Design approach to the research process and human-centered principles around people management, this study covers the results of a review of the literature, discovery interviews, design thinking activities, and usability testing of a prototype. The outcome of this research is a depiction of the designer’s journey through the performance management process and four behavioral archetypes which fall along a spectrum of analyst to artist. Further, usability testing showed what users may find useful in a performance management tool. Limitations and areas for further research are discussed.