HCD Policy Lab · The think tank of HCD Institute
Designing a sustainable future, together.
HCD Policy Lab, the think tank of The Institute of Human-Centred Design, studies how human-centred design can help the UAE and the wider region build a sustainable economy and a world that works for everyone: services, schools, cities and organisations designed with the people they serve, in step with We the UAE 2031, UAE Net Zero 2050 and the UAE Centennial 2071.
The argument
From designing products to designing a shared future.
The challenges ahead are shared: climate, water, energy, learning, health, and how people of many cultures live and work well together. Meeting them takes more than good products. It takes services, systems and institutions designed with people, for the long term.
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Person
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Community
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City
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Region
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Planet
Research areas
Six questions our think tank works on.
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Sustainability & net zero
How design turns climate goals, such as the UAE's Net Zero 2050 ambition, into everyday choices that people, organisations and cities can actually make.
Our research02
Education for the future
Bringing design thinking and experiential learning into schools and universities, in step with learner-centred strategies such as Dubai's Education 33.
Read: HCD and education policy03
Accessibility & inclusion
Standards, audits and frameworks that make buildings, transport and digital services work for people of determination, and for everyone.
Universal Access framework04
Global responsibility
Design that looks beyond borders: shared resources, fair and resilient supply chains, and partnerships across the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Global South.
Global South Design Summit05
Unity & coexistence
Places, services and workplaces where people of many nationalities, languages and abilities live, learn and work well together.
Management & Policy06
AI & people
Keeping people, not models, at the centre as AI enters services, workplaces and classrooms across the region.
Our researchPublications
Read the work.
Essays and briefs from HCD Institute and our fellows.
- Designing for the Next Six BillionWhy design built for one part of the world fails in the rest of it.→
- Why human-centred design belongs at the heart of education policyDesign thinking, education policy and learning by doing.→
- What is human-centred design?Meaning, process and examples: our reference guide.→
Convenings
Bringing the right people into one room.
Coming in 2027
A Shared Future: a podcast.
Conversations with the people designing a more sustainable and inclusive future across the UAE, the Middle East and the Global South.
How we work
Independent, evidence-led, responsible.
Independent
Our research is ours. Partners and funders do not decide what we conclude, and we name them.
Evidence-led
Field research, real projects and long-term studies, with DIC Hub, IIT Hyderabad, India.
Responsible
We publish what we learn so others can use it, and we design for the long term: for people, communities and the planet.
Who's behind it
The people.
Dr Deepak John Mathew
Founding Board Member, HCD Institute · Professor, IIT Hyderabad, India · Nodal Head, DIC Hub
Work with HCD Policy Lab