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1
An introduction to
human-centered design

Workshop
Guide
THE Design process

discover ideate prototype

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Table of contents

Weekly Leader's Guide

Before the Workshop
Agenda & Materials

Activities & Dicussions

01 Introductions
02 Ice Breaker
03 Course Logistics
04 Human-Centered Design Discussion
05 Mini Design Challenge: Design a Better Commute

Homework
06 Prepare for Week 2
07 Participate in the Google+ Community
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Weekly Leader's Guide

Before the Week 1 Workshop

CONFIRM
that you have a meeting space. This should be a dedicated room, table,
or even just a wall where the group can post ideas and inspiration.
The design process involves a lot of talking and group collaboration,
so you will want to choose a location where your group can talk in an
undisturbed manner and not disturb others around you too much.

CONFIRM
that everyone on your design team can make the Week 1 workshop. If
some members of the team will be missing, consider rescheduling or
have a plan in place to proceed with a smaller number of team members
for the week.

PRINT
this Week 1 Workshop Guide. To save paper, it is not required to print the
Week 1 Readings. Check with your team members and encourage them
to print the Week 1 Workshop Guide as well.

COORDINATE
with your team to bring supplies for brainstorming and Week 1 activities.
Blank paper, pens, felt markers, Post-it Notes (or their equivalent), and
printed Week 1 Workshop Guide should be sufficient.

LEAD
the workshop. This guide will walk you through facilitating the activities,
discussions and assignments for Week 1. You will also want to keep time
so that your group makes it through the full workshop in 2 hours. Make
sure to read the Week 1 Readings thoroughly so that you can effectively
lead your team this week.
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Weekly Leader's Guide

Agenda
01 Introductions 15 minutes
02 Ice Breaker 15 minutes
03 Course Logistics 10 minutes
04 Human-Centered Design discussion 15 minutes
Break 10 minutes
05 Mini Design Challenge 50 minutes
06 Preparation for Week 2 5 minutes

Materials needed
Blank paper, pens, Week 1 Workshop Guide,
Post-it Notes (or their equivalent)
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Activity
01
introductions & beginner's mind
15 minutes

As human-centered designers, its important to embrace your beginners mind; to

approach problems as a novice even when you already know a lot about them. Your
beginners mind is eager to learn and willing to experiment! Take a few minutes to answer
the questions below and then discuss your answers with your team. Be sure to tap into
your beginners mind for the last question below.

Fill out the questions below

1) What is your name?

2) Where do you work?

3) Why are you taking this course?

4) What would you like to learn during the course?

5) What would you like to be doing in 5 years?

6) Tell a story about the last activity that you tried for the first time? Was it exciting or scary?
How did being a novice help you?
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Activity
02
icebreaker: Visual telephone
15 minutes

Its very important to be visual as a human-centered designer. Thinking visually activates

different parts of your brain and can help you get unstuck at key points in the creative
process. This ice breaker will help you get visual.

Complete the exercise 1

- Everyone in the group should write one
Note sentence (silly or serious) on the top of
You will need at least three your piece of paper
team members for this - Fold over the top of the paper to
activity. Each team member hide the sentence
will need a blank piece of
- Pass your paper to the person on
paper and pen.
your right

4 2
- Unfold the paper you just received to - Unfold the paper you just received to
reveal only the last sentence reveal the sentence
- Draw a picture based on what you see. - Draw a picture of what you see
- Fold the paper four times - Fold your paper to hide the sentence
- Pass it to the right at the top, then fold it again to hide the
picture below it
Repeat until your original paper returns to you - Pass the piece of paper to the right
Unfold it and see how much the story has changed

3
- Unfold the paper you just received to
reveal only the picture (not the sentence)
- Write a new sentence below the picture,
describing what you see
- Fold the paper three times to hide the
first sentence, then the picture, then the
last sentence
- Pass it to the right
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discussion
03
Logisitics
10 minutes

The Weekly Leader should guide this discussion. This course has a group-guided learning structure
and will be most successful if you follow as closely as possible to the guidelines below. Discuss each
of these guidelines and determine if there will be any problems and map out potential solutions.

Discuss

Time Leadership Supplies

Each workshop is scheduled to last two
hours. Youll have about 1-2 hours of
readings each week in advance of the
Workshop. After Weeks 2+4, youll have
homework assignments as you practice
the human-centered design process in
your community.
Calendar
Plot the workshop sessions on a
calendar. Mark dates that members
might miss and plan accordingly or
reschedule. You will be conducting
community research in Weeks 2 and 4.
Weekend meetings might be best for
these two sessions.
Space
Try to secure a meeting space for the
full 5 weeks of the workshop. Can you
hold the weekly workshop at someones
house, your school, office, church?
Each week, a member of your team
will serve as the Weekly Leader. This
person will lead the weekly discussion
and facilitate the various activities. They
are also responsible for coordinating
with team members to bring required
supplies.
Set ground rules
We recommend that your group takes
a moment to set a few rules or norms
for how you would like the weekly
workshops to function. Here are some
questions to get you going:
- How can you structure the weekly
workshop to ensure that an
environment of mutual trust and
respect is created?
- How should feedback (both positive
and negative) be communicated so
that each individual and the group get
the most out of it?
- Are there other rules that you can
think of which will make the weekly
workshops run more smoothly?
Each team member should print out the
Workshop Guide and bring it to each
meeting. Remember, it isn't necessary
to print out the Weekly Readings, just
the Workshop Guide.
The Weekly Leader will be responsible
for organizing with the team to provide:
- Pens, pencils, markers, blank paper
- Post-it notes if theyre available;
if not, cut scrap paper into squares and
bring tape to stick them on
the wall.
During Weeks 4+5, your team will
need to gather and bring protoptyping
supplies to the meeting. You'll get more
details later on this.
Sharing
We've created a Google+ Community
where you'll post updates from your
design team and learn what other
workshop groups around the world are
doing. See page 14 of this document for
instructions on how to sign up.

Write Your Team Name

Your team should select a name. Have fun with the name and choose something that is distinctive and represents your team.
You'll use this team name to post updates to the Google+ Groups community.

Team Name

discussion
04
Human centered-design
15 minutes
The Weekly Leader should guide this discussion. These questions are based upon the Week 1
Readings. Feel free to refer back to the readings on your computer (or if you printed them out)
to refresh your memory.
Overview
The first reading ("An Introduction to Human-Centered
Design") provided an overview of human-centered
design. The second reading ("Design-Thinking for
Social Innovation") discussed the human-centered
design process and its application to social
challenges. Some examples within the second reading
as well as the third reading ("Clean Team Case Study")
provided you with specific examples of how the
human-centered design process has been used to
create innovative solutions to real world challenges.
A Note for the weekly leader
Please prompt the group with references back to
the Week 1 Readings if your group needs a boost
during the discussion below.
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Discuss
1
Depending on your previous experience and
knowledge, your learnings from these readings will
be slightly different from the other members of the
group. Take a few minutes to briefly share your three
most interesting takeaways (that you prepared in the
workshop prep for this week) and any questions youre
still trying to figure out.
2
As a group, analyze what makes "Human-Centered
Design" unique from other problem-solving
frameworks. What aspects are similar to other
frameworks for problem solving? What aspects are
different?
3
As a group, share ideas on various social challenges
that you think could benefit from the application of
human-centered design. Are there types of challenges
where you think it would be more difficult to apply the
human-centered design process? Why?
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Activity
05
Design a better commute
Page 1 of 3

The best way to begin learning the human-centered design process is to do it ourselves. Divide
into groups of two people. If your workshop team has an odd number of people, one group can
have three people. Interview your partner and then switch. Someone should be keeping track of
time and keeping the group on schedule with each portion of the activity.

Step 1
Interview: 10 minutes (spend 5 minutes interviewing your partner and then switch roles)
Interview your partner. Begin by understanding their morning commute. Not just about how they get there learn about how
they feel, what they wish for, what gets in their way, ideas for how they would go about improving their commute. Your job is to
Discover
ask great questions, listen, learn and don't be afraid to ask Why?.

A few techniques you might try:

- Try asking "Why?" in response to five consectuive answers from your partner.
- Ask your partner to visualize their morning commute with a drawing or a diagram
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Activity
05
Design a better commute
Page 2 of 3

Step 2
Interpreting needs: 5 minutes
Take five minutes to read over your notes from the interview with your partner. Write down answers to the
questions below.
IDEATE

What are 3 unique aspects of your partners commute? What are 3 needs that your partner faces each morning?

Step 3
Brainstorm: 10 minutes
Nows your chance to imagine new solutions to make someone elses life better! Work with your partner and sketch 4-6 radical
new ways to improve the commute. You should focus on ideas for your partner and your partner should focus on ideas for you.
IDEATE
However, work collaboratively and try to come up with a few ideas that might improve the commute for both of you. Dont worry
about being perfect, draw your ideas quickly to capture them. Use more paper if you need it!
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Activity
05
Design a better commute
Page 3 of 3

Step 4
Reality Check: 5 minutes
Share your favorite ideas with another team. Get feedback from them. Dont sell your ideas find out what they really think! See
if you can find out what excites them about your ideas, and learn more about what they might wish for.
IDEATE

Notes

Step 5
Prototype: 10 minutes
Ok. You got some feedback from another team. How do you want to revise your design to reflect that feedback? Now it's time to
prototype. Choose your favorite idea and work with your partner to quickly build a prototype.
Protot ype

Remember
Your prototype can be a model, a diagram, or a more detailed drawing. Dont be shy about going tangible its
great to grab some scissors, construction paper, tape and markers (or anything else around you!) and make that idea
real. In any way you can. This way you can share your brilliant design(s) with others!
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discussion
06
REflect & Share
10 minutes

Congratulations on designing a great solution! Normally, you would continue to iterate on your
idea, reconsidering elements of your design based on feedback you receive from the community.
Because time is growing short in this week's workshop, let's take a few minutes to reflect on what you
learned during this mini-challenge and during Week 1 as a whole.

Reflect Share
Take 5 minutes to individually reflect on the Now come together with your full workshop group:
following questions and write your responses down
quickly in your notebook or on some Post-it notes: Share your prototype with the group. Do you have
ideas for further refining your idea based upon
What feedback did you get from the other design the feedback you received?
team during the "Reality Check"? Did your design
change as a result? Share and discuss your Ahas with the group.
Were there similar or different takeaways?
Based upon your experience during this mini
design challenge, why might the human-centered
design process be a useful problem solving
methodology for tackling larger social sector
challenges?

Acumen has a practice of sharing Ahas on

a regular basis. It is a way to reflect on an
experience and gain more insight into both
the world around you and yourself. "Ahas" can
bekey takeaways, new perspectives on an issue,
memorable comments or questions, surprises,
challenges, or parting thoughts from this
workshop.Write down a few Ahas.

Optional
Take pictures of your prototypes from this
design activity to share online later. See p. 14
of this document for instructions on how to
participate in the Google+ Community.
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homework
06
Preparing for Week 2
5 minutes

CHOOSE
the Weekly Leader for next week.

REVIEW
materials needed for the Week 2 workshop: pens, paper,
Post-it's, notebooks, camera/ mobile phone camera.

CONFIRM
location & time for the Week 2 workshop. A weekend meeting
is advised for this session, as you will spend part of it out in the
community, doing research.

DON'T FORGET
to do the following between today and your Week 2 workshop:
- Join the "Human-Centered Design for Social Innovation"
Google+ Community if you havent already done so
(please see p.14 for instruction).
- Share your individual "Ahas" from Week 1 and/or any photos
from the Week 1 workshop on theGoogle+ Communityunder
the category "Workshop Reflections/Pictures".
We suggest the following title for your post:
"Your team name_Your location_Week 1".
- Read Google+ Community posts from the other participants
around the world.

read
the Week 2 Readings in advance of the Week 2 workshop.
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homework
07
Participate in the Google+ Community
5 minutes

Participating in the online Google+ community will help you understand how teams around
the world are implementing human-centered design as they learn about it during this course.
Depending on your familiarity with Google+ we've outlined how you can sign up to participate.

If you DO NOT have a
Google+ or gmail Account
1 1a
Go tohttps://www.google.com/
2 the community is listed at the bottom
Find the red box that says "sign up" at
the top right corner.
3 Or Look for a button that says "Home"
Fill in the required information and
register for a Google account.
4 says"Search for communities", type in
Once you are logged into your Google
account, click on "+(your name)" that
appears at the top left corner of your
screen. For example if your first name
is Jessica, it will appear as "+Jessica".
5
Once you have reached your Google+
profile page, you can either upload
your picture by clicking "Snap a
photo"/"upload an image" or simply
move on by clicking on the blue box
that says "Finish".
If you DO have an account and
have used Google+ before
Clickhere* and "Ask to join" the
Human-Centered Design for Social
Innovation community. The full URL for
of this page.
1b
at the top left of your Google+ profile
page. Scroll down the menu until you
reach "Communities" in green.
Click on it. Within the box that
Human-Centered Design for Social
Innovation. Click on the button that
says "Ask to join this community".
2 -"Syllabus"
Wait for an email confirming you've
been excepted into the Google+
Community.
Take a few minutes to
orientate yourself to the
Google+ Community
1
When joining the "Human-Centered
Design for Social Innovation"
Community, you must read the "About
this community" section on the
community home page. Please be sure
to also read "A word from our legal
team". We know the legal stuff isn't
exciting, but it's important. Trust us.
2
Browse the various sections of the
Google+ community under "All posts".
Some categories that you might find
useful include
-"Tips for Google Community" (tips)
-"Do's and Don'ts
-"Homework"
Optional
We have established a Google
map to visualize who is taking
this course around the world.
The link to the Google Map of
course participants and guide-
lines for how to participate in this
dynamic map is posted under the
category "Map - Who is taking
this course?" from the Google+
community page.

* https://plus.google.com/communities/111202940490879949292