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Design Methods Toolkit
The MediaLAB Amsterdam method card collection is a very wide range of design
and research methods that can be used to get the necessary insights.
The methods are divided in categories relating to the type of insights that can be gained with them. The methods can be about defining goals, knowing context, knowing the user, framing insights, ideation, prototyping or testing.
1.
Choose your goal
Define goals and intentions
Define vision, scenarios, scopes and constraints. Why are you doing it? What are you looking for? Who are you designing for?
Know the context
Explore the background of the project, the situation, the location, the time, the social and technical context. What are the main factors?
Know the user
Get to know users, explore their goals, needs and feelings. Who are the users? Explore their features, values, standards, emotions. What are the touchpoints of your user?
Frame your insights
A way to draw conclusions, to make lessons learned explicit. Try to narrow down the information. Can you extract the most valuable and important element from your insights?
Ideation and concepts
Generate ideas, explore possibilities. Generate concepts, explore ideas in a very broad sense. How can you visualize, sketch and conceptualize the requirements arising from your research insights?
Create and test
Ways to get from concepts to production, prototyping and testing. Are your ideas valid? Can you create working prototypes from your concepts? How can you test your prototypes with users?
2.
Define time and effort
Time
Each method card has an estimated time of completion. The estimated time helps to chose a method according to the available time.
Effort
Each card also takes the time for preparation, processing and analysis into account: more effort probably means that more team members should be involved.
3.
Browse the methods
Explore the digital toolkit