A key feature of the D4AD initiative was a commitment by its partners to develop tools and resources using a human-centered design approach. This meant focusing on the workers and jobseekers each state partner was seeking to serve; developing a much deeper understanding of worker attitudes, experiences and perspectives; and developing tools and resources to meet those needs. It also meant involving a wide set of partners who would be using or promoting these tools and resources to support workers and jobseekers.  And most importantly, it was based on continuous feedback from all of these stakeholders, creating an iterative development process with ongoing adaption to the tools, resources, and outreach throughout the process.

While this adaptive, human-centered design created additional project management responsibilities and assurance that all partners were kept up to date on developments, the benefits of this approach are clear.  Human-centered design cultivates broader involvement and ownership among users and organizations; a sense of appreciation for systems that are adaptive to individual client needs; and leads to a culture of continuous improvement within organizations that come to see that efforts to benefit their clients are not static and bureaucratic but truly caring, purposeful, and constantly evolving.