I enjoyed reading this paper. It does help appreciate the human-centered design approach at Medic and especially as regards iterating on the initial understanding of a context. The perceived simplistic nature of an intervention seeking to validate an understanding can often seem “too simple” and not “complex enough” especially if coming from a highly technical background and almost always does not translate to a simple design process.
I have a couple of highlights from this paper but these two stand out for me, one of which @isaacholeman highlights above:
to paraphrase “human-centered design is to accompany the user in the actual meaning of the word and much more!”;
and secondly,
" … the process of making is typically complex, because the designer’s moves often have intended and unintended consequences. The direction of a design project emerges in practice, because the designer cannot fully predict or control how the materials will respond to her initial attempts to shape them."