We build digital experiences that put people first. In an AI-driven world, that’s never mattered more.
We help organizations design, build, and deploy AI-powered products and platforms that work for the people who use them — not just technically, but humanly. We bring strategy, design, and experience thinking to the part of AI development that most firms leave behind: what it actually feels like to use.
We also help organizations and their people navigate an AI-driven world — whether that means building the platforms, designing the experiences, or developing the programs that make adoption real.
Underneath all of it is our creative practice — brand strategy, digital products, and experience design for organizations where the work has to connect. From early stage startups to globally recognized institutions, across healthcare, financial services, cybersecurity, professional learning, and civic life.
The range is rare. Brand strategy, AI experience design, and learning solutions in one firm, built around a single question: does this actually serve the human on the other side of it?
Clients
The Key Ingredient: Empathic Design.
We bake in what others might not: respect for the people who use what we design and build.
Empathic design is our answer to a digital world that too often treats people as targets rather than humans. It’s a point of view, a practice, and a standard — one that says the experience has to work for people not just technically, but emotionally, intuitively, and truthfully.
Where digital experiences intimidate, we set out to give comfort. Where they feel adversarial, we stand on the user’s side. Where they leave people behind, we design to bring them in.
We believe that when you design with genuine empathy, people trust you, return to you, and advocate for you. Empathy in digital work isn’t only the right thing — it’s the most effective thing. Especially now, as AI raises the stakes on every experience we build.
Empathic design informs every Design for People project. Learn more about the framework behind it at the Empathic Design Institute.
Empathic design has five principles.
- Be mindful. Every design element is chosen with purpose and intention.
- Be transparent. No misdirection. The user always understands what and why.
- Take the user’s side. We design for their needs, their confidence, their success.
- Be pleasing. Simple, memorable, clear. Design that feels right.
- Be easy. The path to value is always evident. No decoding required.
The Brilliance of Design for People is Our People.
We are strategists, marketers, designers, instructional designers, and technologists — each a leader in our craft, each committed to the belief that the best digital experiences are built around the people who use them. Our extended network of expert collaborators means we bring exactly the right expertise to every project, whatever it demands.
Erin Gibney
Founder & CEO, AI, Brand & Learning Design Strategist
Teri Cantor
Curriculum Director & Lead Instructional Designer
Lisa Jaycox
Communications Consultant
Casper Voogt
Technical Project Manager & Lead Developer
Erin Gibney is the founder and CEO of Design for People and the Empathic Design Institute. For over two decades she has led work across AI experience design, brand strategy, digital products, and eLearning — building experiences for organizations where the stakes are high and the work has to connect with people when it truly matters.
Her clients have included AARP, the FDA, the Capitol Visitor Center, and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, spanning healthcare, financial services, cybersecurity, civic education, and emerging technology. She built DFP on a single belief: that empathy isn’t a soft skill in design — it’s the most necessary one.
Her broader client work spans the FAA, McGraw-Hill, Apple, Philip Morris International, Walmart, Cybervance, the American Bankers Association, and the University of Vermont. Her career includes senior roles at Blackboard and VCampus/UOL Publishing, and earlier work with the Smithsonian. She holds a B.S. in Communication Arts and an M.S. in Curriculum Development from Cornell University, with additional graduate work in Educational Technology Leadership from George Washington University. She has also completed the AI Intensive for Learning and Development and the ChatGPT MasterClass from JoshCavalier.ai, keeping her practice at the leading edge of AI integration in instructional design.
In prior roles, Lisa has led teams and communication strategies at XP Land, Economic Architecture, Trinity Church NYC, Fast Company Magazine, Wildlife Conservation Society, and McGraw-Hill. Her work has been recognized by PR News as one of 15-to-Watch, and as a Shorty Award Finalist, twice. She teaches graduate-level communications strategy and social media at New York University and is a sought-after speaker on helping organizations use digital channels to increase impact. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.
What makes Casper rare is his background: a B.S. from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University. That architectural lens shapes how he approaches every project — thinking simultaneously in terms of structure, functionality, and user experience, with accessibility and performance built in from the start.
Join Our Team.
Design for People is a fully remote team of diverse, curious, and deeply caring people who love what we do. We’re founded on empathy for the people we design for and the people we work with. If you’re interested in joining our team, send your resume to careers@dfpdigital.com.
Giving Back
Success means more when it’s shared. We bring our full strategic and design capabilities to organizations doing meaningful work in the world.
Tanzania Education Fund & Margery Wolf Kuhn Schools
Tanzania Education Fund supports Margery Wolf Kuhn Schools in Bagamoyo, Tanzania — providing primary and secondary education with a particular emphasis on girls’ pathways beyond secondary school. Design for People created the TEF and MWK Schools website and social media presence, and supported their campaigns.