A Business discipline A special sauce you can drizzle on top of your caramel frap and magically design anything amazing A ridged toolset for accomplishing design
Design Engage: Interact with and interview users through scheduled and unscheduled encounters Observe: View users and behavior in the context of their lives Immerse: Experience what your user experiences
a beginner’s mindset to remove your bias from the users response Asking the question “Why?” can be helpful in understanding thoughts, emotions and motivations Categorizing responses into Say, Think, Feel, and Do can be helpful for creating actionable define/brainstorm material
actionable formats Analogous Solutions: Very often, when you design with one heightened user need in mind - you end up designing for many Great design takes a very strong opinion about end users Reframing your insights helps to continue empathize with your user
View” statement Need: Identifies a need that is deep, emotional and actionable (verbs) User: Specific, empathetic language about your user Insight: Synthesize your observations and make some abductive interpretations A unique, concise reframing of the problem based on user needs and insights
externally There is no bad idea Go for volume Be Visual Stick to headlines to communicate clearly Wild ideas are great How Might We...?: reframe the problem and ask a slightly different question
idea that becomes a way to test your hypotheses High Resolution: Test how an idea comes across visually Low Resolution: Test how an idea is perceived working or interacting Why?: To gain empathy, to explore (build to think), to learn and refine solutions Fail Early Fail Often
the users hands Set the scene or give an explanation to act as a guide, not as a lead Don’t be a salesman Observe / Engage the user by asking questions or iterating on the fly