Walk through the techniques and attitudes of design to advance you from an open-ended challenge to a place with new insights, ideas, and prototypes.
It is intended for someone with some experience using a human-centered design approach (perhaps in a learning orientation), and now working on a real project. Consider this as a useful guide to your first 20-100 hours of work on a project, and a description of tools and mindsets useful throughout your work.
How does it work?
Identify a problem you’re facing that would benefit from human-centered design. Your problem should challenge you in at least one of these particular ways:
You aim to better understand the people for whom you are designing;
You want to work in an action-oriented way (getting away from your desk and out in the world);
You aim to work both on “problem-finding” (discovering the meaningful opportunity), as well as problem-solving; and
The end solution is not yet dictated.
Use the downloadable guide to work through your problem using a human-centered design process.
Credits
Written by Thomas Both, building on the work of many at the d.school. Many concepts come from techniques advanced with Perry Klebahn and Jeremy Utley. Thanks to Perry Klebahn for collaboration on the content and organization of this guide. Photos on pages 6, 38, 46, and 56 by Patrick Beaudouin.
Related Resources
Design Project Scoping Guide
© Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford