Methods

Human-centered design is a practical, repeatable approach to arriving at innovative solutions. Think of these Methods as a step-by-step guide to unleashing your creativity, putting the people you serve at the center of your design process to come up with new answers to difficult problems.

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Conversation starters 575x575 — Conversation Starters put a bunch of ideas in front of users to spark their reactions.

Dk illos jess frame your design challenge 575 — Properly framing your design challenge is critical to your success. Here’s how to do it just right.

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Define your audience 575x575 — Consider the broad spectrum of people who will be touched by your design solution.

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Dk impactmethods alignyourimpactgoals — Get crystal clear on the change you want to achieve, in the near-term and long-term.

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Interview 575x575 — There’s no better way to understand the hopes, desires, and aspirations of those you’re designing for than by talking with them directly.

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Analogous inspiration 575x575 — To get a fresh perspective on your research, shift your focus to a new context.

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Create a project plan 575x575 — Get organized, understand your strengths, and start identifying what you’ll need to come up with innovative solutions.

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Build a team 575x575 — An interdisciplinary mix of thinkers, makers, and doers is just the right combination to tackle any design challenge.

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Dk photojournal 575px — Photos are a fantastic way to learn about a person’s life, especially if they’re the one taking them.

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Group interview 575x575 — You can come to a quick understanding of a community’s life, dynamics, and needs by conducting a group interview.

Secondary research 575x575 — Getting smart around your challenge is crucial to success in the field.

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Recruiting tools 575x575 — Human-centered design isn’t just talking to a lot of people, it’s about talking to the right people. These tools will make sure that your interviews really count.

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Immersion 575x575 — There’s no better way to understand the people you’re designing for than by immersing yourself in their lives and communities.

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Collage 575x575 — Having the people you’re designing for make and explain a collage can help you understand their values and thought processes.

Card sort 575x575 — This simple exercise will help you identify what’s most important to the people you’re designing for.

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Expert interview 575x575 — Experts can get you up to speed quickly on a topic, giving you key insights into relevant history, context, and innovations.

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Extremes and mainstreams 575x575 — Designing a solution that will work for everyone means talking to both extreme users and those squarely in the middle of your target audience.

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Guided tour 575x575 — Taking a Guided Tour through the home or workplace of the person you’re designing for can reveal their habits and values far better than talking to them on the street.

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Peers observing peers 575x575 — Get a glimpse into the community you’re designing for by seeing how they document their own lives.

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Dk illos jess resource flow 575 — By organizing and visualizing how a person or family spends money, you’ll see how it comes in, goes out, and opportunities for more efficiency in the system.

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Dk bodylanguage 575px — What you don’t say can be as important as what you do. The right body language, eye contact, and facial expressions can help you learn more and engage deeply.

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Dk fivewhys 575px — This easy research method will help you uncover the deep motivations and assumptions that underpin a person’s behavior.

setting-up-codesigners — Prepare codesigners to independently conduct interviews with their own community.

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Draw it 575x575 — Spur deeper and different kinds of conversations by picking up pen and paper and drawing.

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Participatory Approach — Explore meaningful ways to engage participants and center their hopes and needs for your specific project.

Power Mapping — A tool for reflecting on power and how it should be shared across stakeholders.

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Get feedback 575x575 — You’ve learned and built. Now share what you’ve made with the people you’re designing for and see what they think.

Dk impactmethods theoryofchange transparent — Articulate and interrogate your assumptions about how your solution will create positive change

Rapid prototyping 575x575 — This method gives you an overview of the main steps involved in a rapid prototyping phase.

Dk illos jess create insight statements 575 — A critical piece of the Ideation phase is plucking the insights that will drive your design out of the huge body of information you’ve gathered.

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Bundle ideas 575x575 — Now that you’ve got lots of ideas, it’s time to combine them into robust solutions.

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Dk impactmethods impactlogicmodel — Capture a clear narrative for how your solution will ladder up to positive change over time

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Create frameworks 575x575 — A Framework is a visual representation of a system, and a great way to make sense of data. Use them to highlight key relationships and develop your strategy.

Collaborative Synthesis — An approach to analysing data and identifying insights with a stakeholder group.

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Create a concept 575x575 — Move from a handful of ideas and insights into a fully-fledged concept, one that you’ll refine and push forward.

Future Headlines — A participatory activity to support aspirational goal setting, by imagining a more positive future.

Group-chat — A low-lift and low-cost way for virtually engaging participants in the design process.

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Dk impactmethods buildrunproto — Build your prototypes quickly, share them immediately, keep learning.

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Integrate feedback iterate 575x575 — Let the feedback of the people you’re designing for guide the next iteration of your solution.

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Dk journeymap color 575x — A Journey Map allows you to identify and strategize for key moments in the product, experience, or service you’re designing.

Dk journeymap color 575x — A guide for collaborating with community members during the prototype testing & learning process.

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Dk impactmethods waystogrow — This easy-to-make chart will help you understand how potential concepts might require your organization or capacities to grow.

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Business model canvas 575x575 — This handy worksheet can help you think through some key aspects of a social enterprise, service, or business.

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Brainstorm 575x575 — Energize your team and drum up a staggering amount of ideas.

Dk illos sera how might we color 575x — Every problem is an opportunity for design. By framing your challenge as a How Might We question, you’ll set yourself up for an innovative solution.

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Share inspiring stories 575x575 — Once you’ve had a chance to Download Your Learnings it’s time to make sense of them. One way is to share the most inspiring stories you’ve heard with your teammates.

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Download your learnings 575x575 — In the Inspiration Phase you gathered tons of information. Here’s how you share it with your team and put it to use.

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Top five 575x575 — This easy synthesis tool can help you prioritize, communicate, and strategize with your team.

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Mash ups 575x575 — What would the Harvard of agricultural extension services look like? Mash-up two existing brands or concepts to explore new ideas.

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Design principles 575x575 — As you build out your ideas, you’ll notice that certain unifying elements are starting to guide the design. Here’s how to recognize them.

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Brainstorm rules 575x575 — At IDEO.org we have seven little rules that unlock the creative power of a brainstorming session.

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Explore your hunch 575x575 — A huge part of human-centered design is following your nose. If you’ve got a feeling about something, give yourself a chance to explore it.

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Cocreate session 575x575 — The people you’re designing for can tell you plenty, and they can show you more. Here’s how to further incorporate them into your design process.

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Determine what to prototype 575x575 — There are so many ways to prototype an idea. Here’s how to isolate what to test.

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Role playing 575x575 — A quick and tangible way to test an idea or experience is to get into character and act it out.

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Storyboard 575x575 — A quick, low-resolution prototype, a Storyboard can help you visualize your concept from start to finish.

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Gut check 575x575 — You’ve been generating a ton of ideas. Here’s a chance to look at them critically and figure out what to pursue, what to evolve, and what to discard.

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Dk illos jess get visual 575x — Incorporating drawing, sculpting, and building into the Ideation process can unlock all kinds of innovative solutions.

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Find themes 575x575 — As you share your learnings, hidden patterns are likely to emerge. Here’s how to spot and make sense of them.

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Dk impactmethods modestoscale — Scaling is hard, but continuing to leverage design principles can set you up for success.

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Dk impactmethods defineyourindicators — Indicators define the type of data we will collect to understand our impact over time.

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Live prototyping 575x575 — A Live Prototype is a chance to run your solution for a few weeks or months out in the real world.

Roadmap 575x575 — You’ll need a clear timeline and a plan of action to get your idea out into the world. A Roadmap keeps you on time and on target.

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Dk illos jess staff your project 575x — Now that you’ve got an idea to put in motion, build the team that can take you from concept to completion.

Dk impactmethods exploringscalability — When the time comes to consider scaling, explore your objectives and opportunities carefully.

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Pilot 575x575 — A Pilot is a longer-term test of your solution and a critical step before going to market.

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Sustainable revenue 575x575 — Your Funding Strategy will get you through launch, but you’ll need a long term revenue strategy to have maximum impact.

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Building partnerships 575x575 — You may well need some help getting your concept to market. Build the Partnerships you’ll need now.

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Keep iterating 575x575 — Testing, getting feedback, and iterating will help you get a great solution to market and let you know where to push it when you do.

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Create a pitch 575x575 — Now that your idea is pretty well set, you’ll want to communicate it to funders, partners, consumers, everyone!

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Capabilities quicksheet 575x575 — You’ve got a great solution, but what is it going to take to execute it? The team you’ve currently got may not be enough.

Measure and evaluate 575x575 — Your goal has always been to have big impact. Smart measurement will help you get there faster.

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Dk illos jess fundraising strategy 575x — Without a coherent Funding Strategy in place, you may not have the money you need to get your design solution off the ground.

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Keep getting feedback 575x575 — Even though your idea is now as close to market as it’s ever been, you still need the input of the people you’re designing for.

How do I assess if my solution is working?

How do I get started?

How do I conduct an interview?

How do I make sense of what I've heard?

What tools can I use to understand people?

How do I come up with ideas?

How do I choose a solution to take forward?

How do I prototype my ideas?

How do I prepare for launch?

How do I prepare for scale?