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HCD Workshop
1

5 week course

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HCD Workshop
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preamble

xx-xx

Week 1
An Introduction to
Human-Centered Design
Readings week1_readings.pdf
Workshop Guide
week1_workshopguide.pdf

Week 2
Discover
Readings week2_readings.pdf
Workshop Guide
week2_workshopguide.pdf

Week 3
IDEATE
Readings week3_readings.pdf
Workshop Guide
week3_workshopguide.pdf

Week 4
prototype
Readings week4_readings.pdf
Workshop Guide
week4_workshopguide.pdf

Week 5
move
Readings week5_readings.pdf
Workshop Guide
week5_workshopguide.pdf

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HCD Workshop
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BEFORE YOU START

This workshop
is for you
This workshop can help you create solutions for everyday challenges.
Businesses, social entrepreneurs
and other innovators have used
human-centered design for
decades to create solutions for
many different types of challenges.
This workshop will teach you the
human-centered design process
so that you can be more intentional
about facing and solving challenges
in your community.

effective ways
to engage my
community

This workshop is designed

with a group-guided
learning structure, which
means that you and your
team of 2 - 6 people will
be learning the humancentered design process
together. The course is
designed to be conducted
over 5 weeks. However,
you can also do it faster or
slower if a different pace is
right for your team.

improved
collaboration

unstuck
What will
human-centered
design
get me?

more creative
confidence

more fun

solutions that fit my

individual challenge

This workshop is an
invitation to experiment
with design processes. Let
it inspire you to approach
challenges differently and
experience how humancentered design adds a new
perspective to your work.

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HCD Workshop
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Before you start

A note about
language
The terminology used to describe human-centered design can vary a bit.
Indeed, not even the term, human-centered design is universal among its practitioners. Youll
notice in some of the articles and links to the required and optional readings for this course, that
the terminology used to describe human-centered design is sometimes refered to as design
thinking. As a new learner of the process, you can think of human-centered design and design
thinking as referring to the same approach.

the design process

In this course, the three major stages of the
human-centered design process are broken
down this way:

DISCOVER

IDEATE

Prototype

As you begin reading

some of the other
materials included in this
course, you'll see that
the steps in the humancentered design process
have been broken down
in a variety of different
ways. For example, when
reading the HCD Toolkit,
you'll notice that the three
major steps of the process
are labeled as: 1) Hear ;
2) Create; 3) Deliver.
If you read the Bootcamp
materials from the
Stanford d.school, you'll
learn yet another set of
terms to describe the
stages in the humancentered design process.

Confused yet? Dont

worry, everyone is at
first. As you start to put
human-centered design
to work, the steps will
become more clear.
Most importantly,
human-centered design
is a process. Think of it as
a recipe for cooking your
favorite meal. The names
of the ingredients might
differ from place to place,
country to country, but
the process itself with
an emphasis on getting
out into your community,
prototyping rapidly, and
iterating until you get
your ideas right
remains constant.

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HCD Workshop
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Before you start

Course
requirements
There are a few logistics everyone on the design team should know.
Below is a preview of the things you will need to consider throughout this 5-week course. You
will have a chance during the first workshop to discuss all of these as a group and address any
concerns or conflicts.

Teams
This course is designed as a group-guided learning experience. In
order to make this stucture work, you'll need a team of at least 2 (and
no more than 6) colleagues. A team is stronger than any individual.
And collaboration is inherent to human-centered design: having a
team of people who offer different strengths and perspectives will
enable you to solve complex challenges. But teamwork isnt always
easy. Team dynamics can be as limiting as they are empowering.
Heres how to build a great team:
Start small.
A team will work best if it consists
of a core group of two to six
individuals. The smaller size
will make it easier to coordinate
schedules and make decisions. If it's
right for your team, invite others to
join for brainstorms, give feedback or
help you get unstuck when its most
useful.
Invite variety.
Select people who can contribute
from different angles. Youll have
a better chance of coming up with
unexpected solutions.

Assign roles.
Make agreements about which
responsibilities people can take on
that brings out their strengths. Who
will be the Weekly Leader each
week, keeping everything organized
and leading the team? Who will be
the enthusiast, inspiring the team
with big dreams? Who is the nagger,
making sure things keep moving
forward?
Allow for alone time.
While most of this work should
be done as a team, make sure to
allow for individual work time.
Sometimes the best progress comes
from solitary thinking, planning
and creating.

Time
Youll have about one to two
hours of readings each week to
prepare for your workshop. Each
workshop is scheduled to last two
hours. After Weeks 2&4, youll
have homework assignments
as you practice your humancentered design skills out in the
community.
This course is designed to take
five weeks to finish. However,
this is just a suggestion and the
course can be completed in more
or less time, depending on the
schedules of you and your team.

CALENDAR
You should plot the workshop
weeks on a calendar with your
team. Can everyone commit to
attend all of the sessions? If not,
mark dates that members might
miss and plan accordingly or
reschedule. Weekend meetings
might be best for Weeks 2&4
because you will be getting
out into the community to do
research and youll want to
make sure that lots of people are
around for you to speak with.

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HCD Workshop
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Space
Doing the human-centered
design process well requires
space for your team to work.
Can you hold the weekly
workshop at someones house?
Your school? Your office? Your
church? Restaurants or coffee
shops can work as spaces too,
but can sometimes be too noisy
or crowded to facilitate proper
brainstorming and prototyping.
Whatever space you find, its
best if theres a wall where you
can stick inspiring imagery or
notes from your research, so that
your team can be continuously
immersed in your learnings.
Shared visual reminders will also
help your team track progress of
the project and stay focused on
your challenge.

LEADERSHIP
Each week, a member of your
team will serve as the Weekly
Leader. This person will be
responsible for reviewing the
Weekly Readings and the
Workshop Guide thoroughly
before the weekly workshop so
that they can lead the workshop
discussion and activities. The
Weekly Leader will also organize
your team to bring required
supplies each week. You should
coordinate with your team to
choose the Weekly Leader for
Week 1 and subsequently choose
a new leader for the following
week at each group session.

suggested supplies
The human-centered design
process is visual, tactile and
experiential. It's important to
have supplies on hand that make
it easy to work in this fashion.
Each week, your design team will
need the following supplies for
the workshop:
Pens, pencils, markers, paper.
Post-it notes if theyre available;
if not, cut scrap paper into
squares and bring tape to stick
these square pieces of paper
on the wall. Trust us, this is
important!
D uring Weeks 4&5, youll be
prototyping your designs; each
team member will need to
bring prototyping supplies to
these workshops (we'll provide
more details later).
Other useful (but not required
supplies) might include:
Construction paper, foam core
boards, scissors, and cellphone
cameras.

Printed Materials
Each member of the design team
is required to print out the weekly
Workshop Guide and bring it to
your group session. If you'd like,
you can print out the weekly
readings or download and read
them on a computer or a tablet.