  Context: Human-centric software design and development focuses on how users
want to carry out their tasks rather than making users accommodate their
software. Software users can have different genders, ages, cultures, languages,
disabilities, socioeconomic statuses, and educational backgrounds, among many
other differences. Due to the inherently varied nature of these differences and
their impact on software usage, preferences and issues of users can vary,
resulting in user-specific defects that we term as `human-centric defects'
(HCDs).
  Objective: This research aims to understand the perception and current
management practices of such human-centric defects by software practitioners,
identify key challenges in reporting, understanding and fixing them, and
provide recommendations to improve HCDs management in software engineering.
  Method: We conducted a survey and interviews with software engineering
practitioners to gauge their knowledge and experience on HCDs and the defect
tracking process.
  Results: We analysed fifty (50) survey- and ten (10) interview- responses
from SE practitioners and identified that there are multiple gaps in the
current management of HCDs in software engineering practice. There is a lack of
awareness regarding human-centric aspects, causing them to be lost or
under-appreciated during software development. Our results revealed that
handling HCDs could be improved by following a better feedback process with
end-users, a more descriptive taxonomy, and suitable automation.
  Conclusion: HCDs present a major challenge to software practitioners, given
their diverse end-user base. In the software engineering domain, research on
HCDs has been limited and requires effort from the research and practice
communities to create better awareness and support regarding human-centric
aspects.
