Design Method Toolkit
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Set your goals,
choose your methods,
work your magic.

Design Method Toolkit for agile, team-based projects

🆕 Do-it-yourself downloadable toolkit now available!

1-on-1 interview

A one-on-one interview is a conversation between a researcher and a participant in a face-to-face situation.

4 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Actors map

The Actors map represents the relationship between stakeholders. It’s a view of the service/ system and its cont ...

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Backcasting

Backcasting is a method for planning the actions necessary to reach desired future goals. This method is often ap ...

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Behavioral lenses

Behavioral Lenses focus on understanding the behavior of your target group and creating strategies to design for b ...

4 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Boundary shifting

Boundary shifting is a way to discover solutions and features outside of the boundaries of the system related to t ...

1 DAY - 2 DAYS

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Brain writing

Brainwriting is essentially the same as brainstorming. Ideas are generated by asking people to write them down ins ...

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Break up/Love letter

Instead of directly asking people what they like or don't like about a particular brand, product or service, this ...

1 HOUR - 2 HOURS

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Clickable Prototype

A clickable prototype is a prototype that looks like and may work just like the finished product. It simulates the ...

1 DAY - 2 DAYS

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Co-discovery

Two participants perform an activity and help each other as they would naturally. They are encouraged to explain w ...

2 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Cognitive map

A cognitive map is a mental map of an environment. Participants map a physical or virtual environment by what they ...

1 DAY - 2 DAYS

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Collage

A collage involves sticking images or words on to a large piece of paper, in order to group ideas, personal experi ...

2 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Concept sketch

A concept sketch is a fast freehand drawing.

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Cultural probes

Cultural probes, or design probes are a window into the life of the user. Probes or information gathering packages ...

1 WEEK - 2 WEEKS

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Customer experience map

Customer experience mapping is a method of documenting and visualizing the experience a customer has as they use t ...

4 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Dark side

The dark side turns your challenge into a negative one, forcing you to look at it from a refreshing angle.

1 HOUR - 4HOURS

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Day in the life

A study in which the designer observes the participant in the location and context of their usual activities, obse ...

1 DAY - 1 WEEK

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Design persona

Following a similar structure of the Persona method, give your design personality by creating a design persona. Th ...

1 HOUR - 2 HOURS

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Dot voting

Dot voting is a collective way of prioritizing and converging on a design solution that uses group voting.

1 HOUR - 2 HOURS

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Emoji story

An Emoji story is a method to interpret collected data by translating it into a story. In the story, you leave out ...

30 MINUTES - 2 HOURS

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Emotional journey

An emotional journey is a visualization that maps and illustrates a user’s emotional experience through the expe ...

2 DAYS - 1 WEEK

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Empathy in action

Empathy in action is a way to help people empathize with, and understand a specific situation that is foreign to t ...

4 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Empathy map

An empathy map is a tool to help a design team to empathize with the people they are designing for. You can make a ...

4 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Fishbone diagram

Fishbone diagrams show the causes of a specific event

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Focus group

Focus groups are group discussions of 6 to 12 people, led by a moderator. This method is used to get feedback abou ...

4 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Future workshop

Future workshop is a method that aims to have stakeholders design their desired future, avoiding constraints impos ...

1 DAY - 1 WEEK

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Harris profile

A Harris Profile is a way to visualize the strengths and weaknesses of different design concepts.

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Heuristic evaluation

Also known as expert evaluation. It is used to identify user problems. Experts analyze whether a user interface fo ...

2 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Infographic

An infographic visualizes information. The aim is to represent complex information in a clear way. It can also be ...

2 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Literature review

A detailed review of books, articles, dissertations, conference proceedings, and other written material relevant t ...

1 DAY - 1 WEEK

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Lotus blossom

The lotus blossom method is a creativity exercise. It is a framework for idea generation, starting from one centra ...

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Mash-up

The Mash-up brainstorm technique randomly combines different categories into one concept providing you with a rang ...

1 HOUR - 4HOURS

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Mind map

A mind map is a diagram used to represent a number of ideas or things. Mind maps are methods for analyzinginformat ...

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Mobile diary study

A mobile diary study uses a portable device to capture a person’s experience. Participants create their entries ...

1 WEEK - 2 WEEKS

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Moodboard

A Moodboard is a collage of images, words and/or even samples of materials. It helps you form an emotional image o ...

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Morphological chart

A Morphological chart is a method that splits a product/solution into smaller chunks that can then be analyzed and ...

4 HOURS - 1 DAY

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MoSCoW

MoSCoW is a method that allows the team to prioritize the different features that they will work on. Features are ...

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Navigation map

Navigation maps or Flowcharts are used to depict the way people move through a website or application and gain ins ...

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Nine dimensions

An ethnographic framework to give structure to observations and to ensure the researcher doesn’t miss any import ...

4 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Paper prototyping

Paper prototyping is a quick and cheap way of gaining insights without the need for costly investment. It simulate ...

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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People Planet Profit

People Planet Profit is a way to analyse the potential impact that your idea will have from a sustainability persp ...

1 HOUR - 2 HOURS

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Persona

A Persona is an archetypical character that is used to represent a group of possible users. They share common goal ...

4 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Photo safari

Photo safaris are assignments, where users photograph topics that are relevant for the project. This gives clear i ...

1 DAY - 1 WEEK

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Problem tree

A problem tree is a tool to clarify the hierarchy of problems addressed by the team within a design project; it re ...

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Prototype for empathy

Prototype for empathy helps to understand needs and problems that users have when using a prototype. For example ...

2 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Research collage

A collage involves glueing images or words onto paper. It can be used to gain insights on how a group sees particu ...

4 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Sensorial

This brainstorming method uses our senses to generate ideas.

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Stakeholders map

A stakeholders map is used to document key stakeholders. The map is a brief summary of the relationships and can t ...

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Storyboard

Storyboard is a narrative tool derived from cinema. It’s a form of prototyping which communicates each step of a ...

2 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Survey

A survey or questionnaire, is a primary research tool. In most cases it is designed for statistical analysis.

2 HOURS - 1 DAY

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The AOKI Method

The Aoki Method or MBS method is a structured brainstorming method. It requires input from all team members.

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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The KJ Method

A brainstorming and prioritizing method that places emphasis on the most important ideas and actions.

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Through other eyes

Designing can take a lot of time. Sometimes, if you look at something too much, you become too fixated. At several ...

2 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Venn Diagram

A Venn diagram or set diagram is a diagram that shows all possible logical relations between a finite collection o ...

2 HOURS - 4 HOURS

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Video prototyping

Video prototyping is a simple way to show new and speculative designs, ideas, scenarios, futures or products. Show ...

1 DAY - 2 WEEKS

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ViP (Deconstruct)

Vision in Product Design aims to design products towards a desired future. As a first step, you have to deconstruc ...

1 DAY - 1 WEEK

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ViP (Design)

Vision in Product Design aims to design towards a desired future in which a product fits. As a second step, you st ...

1 DAY - 1 WEEK

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Wireframes

Wireframes are simplified outlines of all the different elements on a web page. They are used to get feedback on t ...

2 HOURS - 1 DAY

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Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz is a research method where a participant interacts with an interface, system or physical object. ...

1 DAY - 2 DAYS

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Written scenario

Scenarios are stories that describe possible future events. They are used to understand and explore different poss ...

4 HOURS - 1 DAY

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WWWWWH

‘Who, What, Where, When, Why and How’ is a method used to obtain a thorough understanding of a problem.

1 HOUR - 4 HOURS

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