101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization

by Vijay Kumar

STEP 7: Rate the six attributes across the stages.

STEP 8: Analyze the experience map.

What about the existing conditions cause them to be this way? Is the experience compelling in all the stages? Which attributes are strongest where? Where are the opportunities for making the experience better?

OUTPUT Understanding of strengths and weaknesses of the user experience at different stages of interacting with an offering

4.17 User Journey Map Mapping the user’s journey through the context

is a flow map that tracks users’ steps through an entire experience.

STEP 1: Generate a list of all the activities.

STEP 2: Cluster activities.

STEP 3: Show activity clusters as nodes on a timeline.

STEP 4: Call out problems and pain-points.

Identify pain points while activities are happening during the process. Highlight these problems or pain-points as call-outs attached to the appropriate node(s) or arrows.

STEP 5: Extend the map with extra...

STEP 6: Look for insights.

STEP 7: Summarize the findings and share them.

This method can be used to reduce the confusion of the user's process between team members while also make the opportunity and pain point clear. I personally think it's a good method to use at the early stage of desigingnig phase to share research finding and find design direction.

Focuses on experience Reveals relationships Structures existing knowledge Visualizes information

4.19 Design Principles Generation Transforming insights from research into actionable, forward-looking statements to guide ideation

HOW IT WORKS STEP 1: Gather all the insight clusters generated from many methods.

STEP 2: Normalize them into a finite list of insights.

Avoid redundancy.

STEP 3: Generate design principles.

“Raise spirits by detoxifying the emotional environment and progress toward a healthy neighborhood.” Design principles should be statements that can support easy concept exploration.

STEP 4: Find three to ten high-level design principles.

STEP 5: Summarize the design principles.

It required many hours and active discussion among all team members, some of them playing devil’s advocate to challenge the thoughts behind each of the insights generated. The goal was to ensure that these insights were thoroughly examined, understood, and clustered into actionable design principles.

Improves communication Keeps grounded in research Makes process transparent Supports transition

4.20 Analysis Workshop Conducting a work session to understand insights, find patterns, and make frameworks for ideation

Question: How would analysis workshop different than the other method organizing insights, for example, insights sorting? Since these two methods both require sorting insights and group discussion.

generation. The method brings together a team of people with the purpose of using the observations and the insights already developed by the design team to align around the emerging patterns. They then can be turned into a set of Summary Frameworks that can later be used for concept generation.

mode. But, instead of using a matrix or map to identify patterns in insights, this method calls for a group of people to find them through discussion and engagement in sorting and clustering activities.

STEP 1: Plan for the workshop.

STEP 2: Gather insights already defined.

STEP 3: Facilitate the workshop.

STEP 4: Review insights and generate more if needed.

STEP 5: Cluster insights.

STEP 6: Organize the insight clusters into analytical frameworks.

may be organized as a network diagram or in different hierarchical levels like a tree diagram, or relatively position them in a position map diagram.

STEP 7: Debrief participants and summarize the workshop output.