About Design
(also called human-centered design or design thinking.)
An Overview of the Empathic Design Process
Empathic Design moves between divergent and convergent steps
When we empathize we are open and gaining more insights and understanding, with define we narrow down to find a specific problem. With ideate we are open to brainstorming and coming up with many creative ideas. With prototyping we start focusing in on a specific idea to create and test.
“Design Thinking is an iterative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions…”
So-Young Kang: What is Design Thinking?
Nice overview, shows how design thinking merges empathy, creativity and rationality.
An example of a project using the design process. In our case, our project is to create a more empathic world.
Ideo, an innovative design company - 60 Minutes
at 2:00. "main tenant is empathy" and "to really build empathy try to understand people through observing them."
"The foundation of empathic design is observation and the goal is to identify latent customer needs in order to create products that the customers don’t even know they desire or, in some cases, solutions that customers have difficulty envisioning due to lack of familiarity with the possibilities offered by new technologies or because locked in an old mindset. Empathic design relies on observation of consumers as opposed to traditional market research which relies on consumer inquiry with the intention to avoid possible biases in surveys and questions, and minimizes the chance that consumers will provide false information."
An Empathic Dialog
The human-centered design process at it's best is an empathic dialog between the designers and those they are designing for. It starts with the designers empathizing with the 'users' and uncovering their needs. The designers then brainstorm solutions to address these needs. They create prototypes of possible solutions and then test them. The testing becomes another opportunity to listen to the user and hear even more deeply about their needs. This process uses empathy as the gateway of creativity, innovation and action.
Design Manuals and Workbooks
An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE .pdf
An 11 page overview of the design thinking process. Empathy, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test
Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit
The toolkit contains a Design Thinking process overview, methods and instructions that help you put Design Thinking into action, and the Designer's Workbook to support your design challenges.
Design Kit: The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design
A step-by-step guide to get you solving problems like a designer. A full-color, 192-page book, the Field Guide comes with 57 design methods, the key mindsets that underpin how and why IDEO.org believes design can change lives, a full slate of worksheets, and case studies from projects that show human-centered design in action.
Design Kit 7 Week Course Manuals
More Links
Remarkable things can happen when empathy for others plays a key role in problem-solving.
An article about how design can be used to foster more empathy. "designers are embracing empathy to improve not just objects, as they traditionally have, but systems and services – often with dramatic results."
A series of interviews hosted by Edwin Rutsch with designers about the role of empathy in design.
An online curated magazine of articles related to empathy and design.
An extensive design website by IDEO with resources for design, mindsets, methods, case studies, videos, etc.
Uncommon Knowledge with David Kelley on creativity, innovation, and design
Interview with David Kelley, he reviews the design process
The Model of Human Centered Design
Idealized Model
Design goes through a series of steps
The steps are iterative,
i.e. done over and over.
More Accurate Model
With human-centered design the path actually goes in and out of the various mindsets.
Empathic Design Model
What is the white space in the idealized model? For us it is an empathic way of being. We cultivate an overall empathic approach to life. So the design process takes place within an overall empathic way of being.
