Designing a design thinking methodology online course

Project overview


The process

We designed seven sessions to meet our learning objectives. In the first session, we explain the design thinking process, providing a comprehensive overview of its stages and principles. The second session focuses on recognizing the key questions to ask during a design project, ensuring that participants can identify the right areas of inquiry.

In the third session, we delve into formulating unbiased questions, teaching participants how to craft questions that elicit genuine and useful insights. The fourth session is dedicated to recognizing design challenges from user insights, helping participants identify and understand the core issues faced by their users.

During the fifth session, we introduce and apply various ideation techniques to the identified design challenges, encouraging creative and innovative thinking. The sixth session involves selecting and combining ideas into coherent, end-to-end concepts, ensuring that participants can develop comprehensive solutions.

Finally, in the seventh session, we prepare and run a basic concept test, guiding participants through the process of evaluating their concepts in a real-world scenario. This final session ensures that the solutions developed are practical, effective, and user-centered.

SesTopicsAssignments
SES 1 Introduction about the training
๐Ÿ’Ž design challenge
๐Ÿ’Ž empathising with the user
1. choose design challenge
2. context map
3. interview guide
SES 2review assignments
๐Ÿ’Ž listen to the users
๐Ÿ’Ž overview of research techniques
4. identify research questions
SES 3review research questions
๐Ÿ’Ž how to perform qualitative interview
5. perform qualitative interviews
6. make sense out of insights
SES 4 review insights collection
๐Ÿ’Ž design challenge definition
7. reframe the design challenge
SES 5review the design challenge
๐Ÿ’Ž overview of the ideation techniques
8. ideation through lotus blossom
SES 6review of the design concept
๐Ÿ’Ž prototyping and testing tecniques
9. prototype and test the weakest hypothesis in the concept
SES 7review test’s results
reflections about the experience, review of personal project, wrap up

The best way to meet the learning objectives is to focus more on hands-on learning and keep the theoretical part of the training to a minimum. To do so All sessions have a similar setup, except for the first one. In the first session, we start with getting everyone onboard and explaining what we aim to learn and what’s expected from everyone:


The deliverable

We’ve created various resources to support our participants throughout the training. Personally, I’ve overseen the development of these materials and channels, ensuring they meet quality and consistency on a content and formal level:

โ˜ž A syllabus containing theories and additional resources to help delve deeper into the theoretical aspects of the training.

โ˜ž An interactive presentation crafted on Figma, offering an engaging way to explore the content.

โ˜ž A Miro board equipped with essential tools to facilitate collaboration and learning.

โ˜ž A dedicated team channel established for communication and file sharing among participants.

โ˜ž A playlist of music to complement the learning environment and enhance engagement.

โ˜ž What I learn out of it

๐Ÿ‘€ Facilitating online training presents different challenges compared to live sessions, primarily because attention spans tend to be shorter. I have learned to introduce more variations within each lesson and to make even the theoretical parts interactive.

๐Ÿ“š Given that the course spanned over two months, maintaining engagement and curiosity between lessons was crucial. I learned that it’s important to enhance the experience with interactive moments that don’t require excessive effort or collaboration from attendees. For example, incorporating elements like a musical playlist, a direct communication channel, or resources for in-depth study can be beneficial.

๐Ÿ™‡๐Ÿปโ€โ™‚๏ธ Encourage participants to bring their own projects to apply solutions and methodologies to specific cases. This enhances engagement and provides an opportunity for attendees to address any uncertainties regarding the methodology.

What else

I created and conducted training, covering all aspects including content, exercises, materials, and promotion. The topics included data visualization, mobile design, design systems, and Figma training.