The Course for Human-Centered Design

Class 3: Workshop Guide

Class Leader’s Guide

Before The Class 3 Workshop

Confirm That You Have a Meeting Space

This space should have ample wall or table space where you can post ideas.

Print Out Class 3 Workshop Guide

To save paper, it is not required to print the Class 3 Readings. Check with your team members
and encourage them to print the Class 3 Workshop Guide.

Coordinate with Your Team to Bring Supplies

For the synthesis portion of your Ideation Workshop,a notebook for blank paper, pens, felt
markers or Sharpies, Post-it notes (or their equivalent), and printed Class 3 Workshop Guide
should be sufficient.

Lead the Workshop

This guide will walk you through facilitating the activities, discussions, and assignments for
Class 3. Make sure to read the Class 3 Readings thoroughly so that you can effectively lead your
team this class.
01 Questions, Comments, & Takeaways
Precrafted design challenge—10 minutes // Personal design challenge—30 minutes

Congratulations! You’ve completed your Class 2 Inspiration phase research! You’ve also learned
about the second phase of the design process as part of the Class 3 Ideation: Synthesis Readings.
This Activity 01 is a way for you to reflect on what you learned in the field, ask questions, and
discuss some of your “aha moments” from the last class. Take a few minutes to reflect on the
questions below. Then discuss what you are most excited about or interested in with your group.

1) What would you most like to discuss with the group about your experiences during the
Class 2 Inspiration phase research? What was most surprising? What was the hardest part
for you? What were your “aha moments”?

2) Did anyone check out what other teams were doing on the Online Community? Would
you like to share something inspiring you saw? Did you learn anything interesting from
other teams around the world tackling your same challenge?

3) What were your big takeaways from the Class 3 Ideation: Synthesis Readings? Do you
have questions?
02 Share Inspiring Stories & Learnings
Precrafted design challenge—1 hour // Personal design challenge—2+ hours

Your design team spent the last class “getting out there” and learning from people in your
community. As part of this activity, you’ll begin the Ideation phase by sharing stories about what
you learned with your design team.

1. Make a List
Start by making a list of everyone your team spoke with and the places you visited as part of
your Class 2 Inspiration phase research.

2. Identify Any Holes

Identify the types of research that your group was and wasn’t able to conduct over the last class.
Do you still have obvious holes in your research? Do you have a plan for trying to fill those
holes?

3. Share Stories
Now it’s time to share stories about the people that you spoke with and the places that your team
visited. Start at the top of the list you made in step # 1. Spend about five minutes on each person
or place. If you took pictures and have access to a printer, print a few of the best photos from
each interview or location and hang them on the wall as you go through your list. This will help
your team more easily organize your thoughts and remember details as you begin making your
thoughts visual. Here is a rough outline about what you should try to share about each person
you spoke with:

• Personal Details: Who did you meet? (name, profession, age, location, etc.)
• Interesting Stories: What was the most memorable and surprising story they told?
• Motivations: What did this person care about the most? What motivates him or her?
• Barriers: What frustrated them?
• Interactions: What was interesting about the way they interacted with their
environment?
• Remaining Questions: What questions would you like to explore if you had another
conversation with this person?

4. Capture What Everyone Is Saying

While you are listening to your teammates tell their stories, write down notes and observations
about what they are saying. Use concise and complete sentences that everyone on your team can
easily understand. Try capturing quotes—they are a powerful way of representing the voice of a
participant. Jot one observation per Post-it note for flexibility in sorting and clustering later.
Make sure you write large enough (and neat enough!) so that everyone can read your notes.
Remember to be as visual as possible.
5. Hang Your Notes on the Wall
When you’re done talking about a particular person you interviewed, hang the Post-its with the
notes you’ve just taken on the wall underneath their photo (if you have one) or a Post-it
containing their name (if you don’t have a photo). There should be a separate section on the wall
for each person that your team interviewed. When possible, keep quotes and images together in
order to paint a rich story.
03 Cluster Into Themes
Precrafted design challenge—20 minutes // Personal design challenge—30 minutes

As part of this activity, your team will start to make sense of the stories you heard and begin
looking for themes to design around. The Class Leader should lead the team through this
activity.

1. Find the "Gems"

From the Post-its that your team just hung on the walls, each person should choose the five that
you find most interesting or most insightful. Remove these Post-Its from the group and put them
in a new blank area with lots of emtpy space around them. Let's call these Post-its your "gems".

2. As a Group, Cluster Information Into Themes

Review the "gems" that your team has selected and try to organize them into similar groups or
categories. These are called "clusters". Did many people mention the same thing? Are there
behaviors you saw repeatedly? Which issues were obvious? Did you hear conflicting statements?
Is there an explanation for this conflict?

3. Find Supporting Evidence

Quickly review the rest of your Post-its on the wall (the "non-gems"). Find additional notes that
support the clusters you've created. Can you include some photographs or visual observations
that substantiate the categories your group has created?

4. Refine Your Clusters

Create a minimum of three and a maximum of five clusters. Is there a new cluster that you might
need to create? Could two existing clusters be combined?

5. Write Headlines
For each of the clusters that you've created, create headlines, such as "proximity" or "hygiene" or
"payment”.
04 Create Insight Statements
Precrafted design challenge—1 hour // Personal design challenge—2+ hours

Now that you’ve created clusters and given them headlines, it’s time to identify the distinct
challenges that your team has uncovered related to each theme. This activity will help you
understand why certain themes have emerged and what makes them potentially important areas
for design. This part of the Ideation phase can be a bit complicated to explain, so we’ve outlined
step-by-step instructions below and completed our own worksheet on the following page.
Review our examples, then use the last page of this activity to complete this as a team.

1. Write your design challenge at the top of the page in the space provided. Being able to
quickly reference your challenge will make this exercise easier because it will help you
connect your insights back to the question you are ultimately trying to answer.

2. Write your cluster headlines from Activity 03 on the lines provided in the worksheet. For
each cluster headline, try to draft three concise sentences that explain why the theme
you've identified describes a challenge for the people in the community that you spoke
with. Feel free to work individually or as a group.

3. Once you have a few sentences for each theme, work with your full design team to revise
and rewrite your insight statements until the group has captured the most unique and
compelling points related to each theme. Use the template provided, or extra sheets of
paper if you run out of room.

A TIP ABOUT CREATING INSIGHT STATEMENTS

It may be helpful to place p. 2 and 3 of this Activity 04 worksheet side-by-side so that you can
more easily follow our examples.
04 Create Insight Statements
Precrafted design challenge—1 hour // Personal design challenge—2+ hours

EXAMPLE:

Write Your Design Challenge

Our design challenge is to increase demand for clean, low-cost toilets in the community.

Theme: Payments

Insights:
1. Kids often don't use clean toilets (or any toilets at all) because they don't have any money
to pay.
2. People often only have money to pay for toilets at the start of the month after they have
been paid.
3. Many residents find themselves without money to make a payment at the exact time they
need to use the toilet.

Theme: Hygiene

Insights:
1. Children will not use the toilet if it is too clean.
2. People aren't aware of the diseases they can catch from dirty toilets.
3. People learn best from their friends or family members, but this isn't how clean hygiene
information is disseminated now.

Theme: Proximity

Insights:
1. When toilets are too far away, young children or older people can't make the walk to the
toilet in time.
2. Many people don't realize that there are closer, cleaner toilets to their home than the ones
they are actually using.
3. People have shifted their behavior to use cleaner toilets closer to their workplace, either
getting to work early or staying late.
04 Create Insight Statements
Precrafted design challenge—1 hour // Personal design challenge—2+ hours

Assignment for Submission

Write Your Design Challenge

Theme:

Insights:
1.
2.
3.

Theme:

Insights:
1.
2.
3.

Theme:

Insights:
1.
2.
3.
05 Create “How Might We” Questions
Precrafted design challenge—30 minutes // Personal design challenge—40 minutes

Human-centered design is most powerful when we turn existing challenges into opportunities for
design. As part of this activity, your team will turn the insight statements that you created in the
last activity into questions which will be the launchpad for your brainstorm. These questions
often start with “How Might We” (HMW) as an invitation for input, suggestions, and
exploration. We’ve included a few examples to review on the following page, and then your
team will craft your own opportunities for design. Similar to Activity 04, it may be helpful to lay
p. 2 and 3 of this Activity 05 worksheet side-by-side.

1. As a team, select your three favorite insight statements that you crafted collaboratively
during Activity 04. Try to choose three insight statement relating to three different cluster
headlines. This will lend more variety to the HMW questions you ultimately create.
Additionally, make an effort to select statements that convey a new perspective or sense
of possibility. Write the three insight statements your team selects in the space provided
on the worksheet.

2. Work individually for a few minutes to try turning the selected insight statements into
HMW questions. Be sure to read the scoping tips to the right and pay close attention to
our examples on p. 2 of this worksheet. You can also refer back to p. 8 of the Class 3
Readings for more guidance.

3. Share your HMW questions with the group. Then work as a group to refine your HMW
questions until they feel like strong questions that you are excited to answer as part of
your brainstorm. Remember, they should be neither too broad, nor too narrow.

PROPERLY SCOPING HMW QUESTIONS

TOO NARROW
HMW create a cone to eat ice cream without dripping? This question implies that redesigning the
cone is the solution. However, the team should be thinking more broadly about a range of
possible solutions.

TOO BROAD
HMW redesign dessert? This question doesn't give enough direction because it doesn't imply a
starting point or immediately help people generate ideas around one category of desserts.

JUST RIGHT
HMW redesign ice cream to be more portable? This question is scoped properly because it
frames the challenge but does not imply a solution. Rather it allows people to brainstorm
multiple solutions.
05 Create “How Might We” Questions
Precrafted design challenge—30 minutes // Personal design challenge—40 minutes

EXAMPLE

State Your HMW Questions

Insight: People often only have money to pay for toilets at the start of the month after they have
been paid.

How might we create more flexible payment options for toilet use?

Insight: People learn best from their friends or family members, but this isn't how clean hygiene
information is disseminated now.

How might we involve the community in creating and disseminating information or campaigns
about hygiene?

Insight: Many people don't realize that there are closer, cleaner toilets to their home than the
ones they are actually using.

How might we create new ways to inform people about clean toilet options close to their homes?
05 Create “How Might We” Questions
Precrafted design challenge—30 minutes // Personal design challenge—40 minutes

State Your HMW Questions

Insight:

How might we

Insight:

How might we

Insight:

How might we