Hasso Plattner Institute, NYC
DESIGN
TOOLBOX
TOOLBOX
DESIGN
TOOLBOX
TOOLBOX
WHAT IS THE DESIGN TOOLBOX?
The Design Toolbox gives you quick and easy access to Designing Your Life and Design Thinking "tools" discussed during your training.
ACCEPT
In order to design a meaningful life, you need to accept reality. Start where you are, not where you or anyone else thinks you should be.
This article reviews 6 techniques you can use to explore with curiosity.
Use this dashboard to capture your own awareness of which parts of your life are full and less than full.
This article reviews an exercise to guide individuals and teams through the process of reflecting on and embracing their full identities.
EMPATHIZE
Empathy is the foundation of Human-Centered Design. The "tools" in this section will help you empathize with yourself and others.
People who want to innovate their work and create better experiences, products and services for their users or customers might benefit from applying certain attitudes...
This easy research method will help you uncover the deep motivations and assumptions that underpin a person's behavior.
There's no better way to understand the hopes, desires, and aspirations of those you're designing with/for than by talking with them directly.
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.
An empathy interview is about active listening. Here are some techniques to help the person being interviewed feel valued and heard.
Use this tool to help participants generate new ideas, surface values, build trust, and more.
When designing your life, it's important to integrate your Workview and Lifeview. You can do this by reflecting on the following questions.
This article reviews an exercise to guide individuals and teams through the process of reflecting on and embracing their full identities.
This pdf is a deck of cards that contain a set of tools/methods used by Stanford's d.school.
DEFINE
It's time to synthesize data collected from the first stage in Design Thinking, which is called the Empathize stage. Then you'll clearly define (or reframe) the problem.
People who want to innovate their work and create better experiences, products and services for their users or customers might benefit from applying certain attitudes...
Mastering the ability to reframe problems is an important tool for increasing your imagination because it unlocks a vast array of solutions...
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.
In the Empathize Stage you gathered tons of information. Here's how you share it with your team and put it to use.
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.
As you share your learnings, hidden patterns are likely to emerge. Here's how to spot and make sense of them.
A critical piece of the Define Stage is plucking the insights that will drive your design out of the huge body of information you've gathered.
This pdf is a deck of cards that contain a set of tools/methods used by Stanford's d.school.
IDEATE
The focus of this stage is to spark and inspire newer, better solutions.
People who want to innovate their work and create better experiences, products and services for their users or customers might benefit from applying certain attitudes...
Here's one quick, simple exercise to get creative muscles warmed up.
Worst Possible Idea is a Design Thinking technique where team members seek the worst solutions in ideation sessions. The "inverted" search process relaxes them, boosts their confidence and stokes their creativity...
At IDEO.org we have seven little rules that unlock the creative power of a brainstorming session.
This is a fast sketching exercise that challenges people to sketch eight distinct ideas in eight minutes...
If you want to generate many wide-ranging ideas in a short amount of time, the Creative Matrix framework is useful because it stimulates cross-pollination...
This technique was created to be an effective way to produce ideas by association. It transforms a huge list of dull or tedious information into a highly organized...
This pdf is a deck of cards that contain a set of tools/methods used by Stanford's d.school.
PROTOTYPE
According to Stanford's d.school, prototyping gets ideas out of your head and into the world. A prototype can be anything that takes a physical form—a drawing, a wall of post-its, a role-playing activity, an object. Prototypes allow us to test our ideas quickly.
People who want to innovate their work and create better experiences, products and services for their users or customers might benefit from applying certain attitudes...
There are so many ways to prototype an idea. Here's how to isolate what to test.
A Role Play is a type of prototype that is not only pretty easy to build, but can also help you get an idea, experience, or product in front of the people you're designing with/for quickly.
A quick, low-resolution prototype, a Storyboard can help you visualize your concept from start to finish.
Build your prototypes quickly, share them immediately, keep learning.
This pdf is a deck of cards that contain a set of tools/methods used by Stanford's d.school.
TEST
Testing involves gathering feedback, refining solutions, and learning more information about the people who will use your product, service, or experience.
People who want to innovate their work and create better experiences, products and services for their users or customers might benefit from applying certain attitudes...
Let the feedback of the people you're designing with/for guide the next iteration of your solution.
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.
Even though your idea is now as close to market as it has ever been, you still need the input of the people you're designing with/for.
This pdf is a deck of cards that contain a set of tools/methods used by Stanford's d.school.
Are you a facilitator?
Here are a few tools to help you get started on planning, delivering, and following up on a workshop.