01 / Rooted
Native HCD experts who understand context from lived experience.
Local researchers cut through language barriers, cultural nuance, and field logistics that outsiders miss. Empathy isn't a workshop technique when it's your community.
Human-Centered Design Agency · Est. 2007
The world's most decentralised human-centered design agency.
We serve NGOs, social enterprises and governments to design impactful solutions for low-income communities — with the local HCD professionals who live and work in those communities.
Live network · 60 countries · 4 continents
250+
Local HCD experts
60
Countries
18yrs
Field experience
4
Continents
Trusted by partners who change lives
Plan International·IRC·Oxfam·GIZ·GAIN·USAID·Challenge Works·SNV·Girl Effect·Palladium·Pact·
Plan International·IRC·Oxfam·GIZ·GAIN·USAID·Challenge Works·SNV·Girl Effect·Palladium·Pact·
Why Proportion
We don't fly in designers. We already live there.
For 18 years we've built one of the most decentralised HCD networks in the world — 250+ experts in 60 countries across Africa, Latin America, South Asia and the Middle East. The people who design with your users are from the same communities.
02 / Close
Proximity means faster, cheaper feedback cycles.
Multiple rounds of user testing without multi-week logistics. Minimal travel, minimal CO₂, maximal iteration. Prototypes return to the field in days, not months.
03 / Systemic
Design 2.0 — beyond traditional HCD.
We integrate systems thinking, futures, business modelling, and behavioural insights. Solutions that are life-centered, community-led, and built to work inside the wider ecosystem.
The Network
One network. Four continents. Sixty countries.
Every engagement assembles a tailored team from our vetted network of native HCD professionals. No two projects draw the same team — every team draws from the place it's designing for.
Africa
30+ countries · 140+ experts
LatAm
12+ countries · 50+ experts
South Asia
8+ countries · 40+ experts
Middle East
10+ countries · 20+ experts
Co-innovation platform
The Innovators Team: a guided platform for co-innovation.
Built by Proportion Global and GAIN, The Innovators Team helps partners run innovation challenges, learning cohorts and communities of practice that continue beyond workshops, reports and funding cycles.
Explore our co-innovation platformSelected Work
Field work, not case theatre.
A sample of recent engagements across research, prototyping, feasibility and business modelling — with the partners and funders who commissioned them.
Co-innovation platform for social protection systems
Research, stakeholder engagement and HCD foundations for GAIN's flagship social protection co-innovation platform across multiple country contexts.
Read the case
Afri-Plastics Challenge — HCD support for African innovators
Embedded HCD support into a major prize programme, helping African innovators reach stronger, more grounded solutions to marine plastic pollution.
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Custom coaching for implementing partners — CFYE
Coaching delivery partners through business model refinement to create sustainable, decent jobs for young men and women across the CFYE portfolio.
Read the case
SPRING Accelerator — structure and HCD craft
Added structure and creative thinking to a complex acceleration programme, helping ventures integrate valuable user feedback into their business models.
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Power to Youth — strengthening innovation from the ground up
Building bottom-up innovation capacity inside the Power to Youth Program, equipping young facilitators to lead community-led design in their own contexts.
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Charging as a Service for electric motorcycle riders
How might pay-per-swap charging unlock e-motorcycle adoption among Kenya's boda-boda riders? A discovery study with operators, riders and station partners.
Read the caseServices
Tailored teams. Toughest challenges.
We assemble the team for the question, not the other way around. Every engagement combines methodology, local expertise and a clear workplan that you can scrutinise before we start.
01
Design ResearchEmpathy interviews, observations, insights synthesis
02Design Sprints & PrototypingRapid co-creation with stakeholders and end users
03Feasibility Studies & PilotingMarket, technical and behavioural validation before scale
04Inclusive Business ModellingFundable ventures and investor-ready pitches
05HCD TrainingHands-on capacity building for your teams and partners
06Creative EntrepreneurshipTraining the next generation of changemakers
The Proportion Global team has been a reliable and engaged partner, bringing valuable perspectives and practical insights to the project at every step — HCD, stakeholder engagement, user research.
AW
Anthony Wenndt
Social Protection Lead · GAIN
Let's talk
Have a challenge that needs the field?
A 30-minute discovery call is the fastest way to find out whether we're the right team. No pitch, no pressure — we'll listen, share honestly whether we can help, and follow up with a written proposal if there's a fit.
Book a discovery call
- 30 minutes. No cost.
- Direct with a senior HCD lead.
- Written follow-up within 48 hours.