This course introduces the principles and practices of human-centered design (also sometimes called “design thinking”) which are essential for developing innovative and inclusive products, services, processes and policies. You will learn by doing, experiencing the design process through exercises and a mini-bootcamp.
Human-Centered Design for Inclusive Innovation
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Human-Centered Design for Inclusive Innovation
This course is part of Gender Analytics: Gender Equity through Inclusive Design Specialization
Instructors: Sarah Kaplan
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4.8
(163 reviews)
Beginner level
Recommended experience
Flexible schedule
Approx. 13 hours
Learn at your own pace
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What you'll learn
Acquire tools for seeing the world as your users & stakeholders see it, with particular attention to marginalized or silent voices.
Identify latent human needs, looking beyond obvious patterns in quantitative and qualitative data to understand underlying drivers and motivations.
Reframe problems such that innovative and inclusive solutions may emerge through problem finding and not just problem solving.
Learn how to involve users & stakeholders in all stages of design—from ideating to prototyping and testing—& bring a learning mindset to the process.
Skills you'll gain
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Assessments
5 assignments
Taught in English
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This course is part of the Gender Analytics: Gender Equity through Inclusive Design Specialization
When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.
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There are 4 modules in this course
In this module, you will learn the basics of human-centered design. You will get a taste of working as a designer and walk through the steps of the design process in a mini-bootcamp exercise. At the end of the module, we will discuss how human-centered design fits well with Gender Analytics.
What's included
8 videos3 readings1 assignment1 discussion prompt
Building empathy is the foundation of human-centered design. Problems we’re solving are usually not only ours, but are experienced by other people, such as our employees, customers, clients, colleagues, and others in the community. To truly understand the context and complexity of the problem we’re trying to solve, we need to focus on putting people first and directing our curiosity towards them. In this module, we’re going to dive deeper into the first phase — Empathize. You will learn how to build empathy for target customers or beneficiaries using design-thinking methods. This will help you gain rich insights for your design of a product, service, process or policy.
What's included
6 videos1 reading1 assignment1 discussion prompt
Are you solving the right problem? It doesn’t matter how great your solution is if you are working on the wrong problem. It is important to take the time to understand what you are solving for. In this week, you will learn a few tools and techniques to dig beyond the obvious patterns and draw out key insights to identify the deeper problems to solve. At the end of this week, you will be able to reframe of the problem to solve for your design challenge.
What's included
9 videos2 readings1 assignment2 discussion prompts
Now that you have reframed your challenge, it’s time to start finding innovative solutions. In this module, you will learn how to apply an intersectional gender lens to the ideation process to create an inclusive design, build prototypes to test your ideas, and refine your solution based on feedback.
What's included
8 videos6 readings2 assignments1 peer review1 discussion prompt
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