Design Thinking: The Ultimate Guide
How This Course Will Help Your Career
What you will learn
How to apply design thinking to your problems in order to generate innovative and user-centric solutions
How to make use of practical design thinking methods in every stage of your problem, with the help of method templates
How to initiate a new working culture based on a user-centric approach, empathy, ideation, prototyping, and playful testing
How to employ ethnographic and analysis methods, such as interviews, focus groups, and surveys
How to prototype early and fast, as well as test your prototypes so as to reduce risks and accelerate organizational learning
Some of the world’s leading brands, such as Apple, Google, Samsung, and General Electric, have rapidly adopted the design thinking approach, and design thinking is being taught at leading universities around the world, including Stanford d.school, Harvard, and MIT. What is design thinking, and why is it so popular and effective?
Design Thinking is not exclusive to designers—all great innovators in literature, art, music, science, engineering and business have practiced it. So, why call it Design Thinking? Well, that’s because design work processes help us systematically extract, teach, learn and apply human-centered techniques to solve problems in a creative and innovative way—in our designs, businesses, countries and lives. And that’s what makes it so special.
The overall goal of this design thinking course is to help you design better products, services, processes, strategies, spaces, architecture, and experiences. Design thinking helps you and your team develop practical and innovative solutions for your problems. It is a human-focused, prototype-driven, innovative design process. Through this course, you will develop a solid understanding of the fundamental phases and methods in design thinking, and you will learn how to implement your newfound knowledge in your professional work life. We will give you lots of examples; we will go into case studies, videos, and other useful material, all of which will help you dive further into design thinking. In fact, this course also includes exclusive video content that we've produced in partnership with design leaders like Alan Dix, William Hudson and Frank Spillers!
This course contains a series of practical exercises that build on one another to create a complete design thinking project. The exercises are optional, but you’ll get invaluable hands-on experience with the methods you encounter in this course if you complete them, because they will teach you to take your first steps as a design thinking practitioner. What’s equally important is you can use your work as a case study for your portfolio to showcase your abilities to future employers! A portfolio is essential if you want to step into or move ahead in a career in the world of human-centered design.
Design thinking methods and strategies belong at every level of the design process. However, design thinking is not an exclusive property of designers—all great innovators in literature, art, music, science, engineering, and business have practiced it. What’s special about design thinking is that designers and designers’ work processes can help us systematically extract, teach, learn, and apply these human-centered techniques in solving problems in a creative and innovative way—in our designs, in our businesses, in our countries, and in our lives.
That means that design thinking is not only for designers but also for creative employees, freelancers, and business leaders. It’s for anyone who seeks to infuse an approach to innovation that is powerful, effective and broadly accessible, one that can be integrated into every level of an organization, product, or service so as to drive new alternatives for businesses and society.
You earn a verifiable and industry-trusted Course Certificate once you complete the course. You can highlight them on your resume, CV, LinkedIn profile or your website.
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Who should take this course
This is a beginner-level course suitable for anyone interested in mastering the powerful and versatile design thinking approach:
- UX, UI, and graphic designers interested in gaining a new approach to solving design problems and generating solutions that work
- Project managers looking for a holistic process that integrates all stakeholders in order to create user-centric solutions
- Software engineers interested in playing a part in idea generation and the design process
- Entrepreneurs looking to empathize with users and build products that fit the market and users’ lives
- Marketers who want to gain a deep understanding of customers
- Stakeholders of a project/company who are keen to get involved in the process of building a product or service
- Anyone who is interested in an innovative problem-solving approach that can be applied to all types of problems in work and in life
Courses in the Interaction Design Foundation are designed to contain comprehensive, evidence-based content, while ensuring that the learning curve is never too steep. All participants will have the opportunity to share ideas, seek help with tests, and enjoy the social aspects afforded by our open and friendly forum.
Learn and work with a global team of designers
When you take part in this course, you will join a global multidisciplinary team working on the course and the exercises at the same time as you. You will work together to improve your skills and understanding. Your course group will be made up of an incredibly diverse group of professionals, all of whom have the same objective—to become successful designers. It’s your chance to learn, grow, and network with your peers across the planet.
Lessons in This Course
- Each week, one lesson becomes available.
- There's no time limit to finish a course. Lessons have no deadlines.
- Estimated learning time: 27 hours 59 mins spread over 9 weeks .
Lesson 0: Welcome and Introduction
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0.1: Welcome and Introduction (10 mins)
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0.2: Build Your Portfolio Project (5 mins)
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0.3: An Introduction to Our Courses (37 mins)
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0.4: Let our community help you (1 min)
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0.5: How to Earn Your Course Certificate (16 mins)
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0.6: Meet your peers online in our discussion forums (5 mins)
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0.7: Meet and learn from design professionals in your area (1 min)
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0.8: Gain Timeless Skills Through Courses From the Interaction Design Foundation (21 mins)
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0.9: Mandatory vs. Optional Lesson Items (7 mins)
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0.10: A Mix Between Video-Based and Text-Based Lesson Content (6 mins)
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0.11: Congratulations and Recap (2 mins)
Lesson 1: What Is Design Thinking?
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1.1: Welcome and Introduction (7 mins)
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1.2: What is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular? (50 mins)
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1.3: The History of Design Thinking (26 mins)
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1.4: 10 Insightful Design Thinking Frameworks: A Quick Overview (38 mins)
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1.5: The 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process (48 mins)
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1.6: Design Thinking: How to Solve Problems in an Innovative Way (28 mins)
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1.7: What Are Wicked Problems and How Might We Solve Them? (46 mins)
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1.8: Three Steps to Facilitate Design Thinking in Your Team (15 mins)
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1.9: Essential Design Thinking Videos, Methods and Tools (56 mins)
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1.10: Share Your Initial Thoughts on the Design Thinking Process (7 mins)
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1.11: Congratulations and Recap (4 mins)
Lesson 2: Stage 1: How to Build Empathy With the People You Design For
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2.1: Welcome and Introduction (7 mins)
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2.2: What Is Empathy and Why Is It So Important in Design Thinking? (57 mins)
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2.3: How to Develop Empathy for Your Target Group (47 mins)
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2.4: 9 Ways to Become a More Empathic Designer (24 mins)
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2.5: 10 Techniques to Develop Empathy With Your Users (35 mins)
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2.6: 7 Simple Ways to Get Better Results From Ethnographic Research (21 mins)
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2.7: How to Conduct User Interviews (38 mins)
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2.8: Cultural Probes: How to Design and Use Them (27 mins)
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2.9: Start to Build Empathy With Your Users (7 mins)
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2.10: Build Your Portfolio Project: Empathize (7 mins)
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2.11: Congratulations and Recap (1 min)
Lesson 3: Stage 2: How to Define the Problem
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3.1: Welcome and Introduction (7 mins)
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3.2: The Define Phase in Design Thinking (19 mins)
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3.3: Affinity Diagrams: How to Cluster Your Ideas and Reveal Insights (18 mins)
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3.4: Personas – A Simple Introduction (14 mins)
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3.5: 10 Steps to Create Your Engaging Personas (11 mins)
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3.6: Deep Dive Into How to Construct and Describe a Persona (36 mins)
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3.7: Personas Allow You to Focus on Individuals (47 mins)
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3.8: Empathy Maps – Why and How to Use Them (28 mins)
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3.9: How to Create Your Point of View (POV) Problem Statement (19 mins)
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3.10: Why Are “How Might We” Questions So Important? (18 mins)
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3.11: Stakeholder Mapping: The Complete Guide to Stakeholder Maps (14 mins)
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3.12: Share Your Design Challenge (6 mins)
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3.13: Build Your Portfolio Project: Define (10 mins)
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3.14: Congratulations and Recap (3 mins)
Lesson 4: Stage 3: How to Ideate for Solutions
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4.1: Welcome and Introduction (5 mins)
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4.2: What Is Ideation and Why Is It So Important in Design Thinking? (20 mins)
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4.3: How to Prepare for Ideation Sessions in 5 Steps (28 mins)
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4.4: Learn How to Use the Brainstorming Technique (1 hour 2 mins)
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4.5: Learn How to Use the SCAMPER Ideation Method (22 mins)
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4.6: Learn How to Use the Worst Possible Idea Method (12 mins)
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4.7: Learn How to Use the Challenge Assumptions Method (11 mins)
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4.8: Learn How to Use the Analogies Method (15 mins)
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4.9: Learn How to Use Sketching as an Ideation Method (50 mins)
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4.10: How to Select the Best Idea by the End of an Ideation Session (28 mins)
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4.11: 14 Barriers to Ideation and How to Overcome Them (28 mins)
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4.12: Exercise and Discussion: Share Your Reflections on Ideation (9 mins)
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4.13: Build Your Portfolio Project: Ideate (12 mins)
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4.14: Congratulations and Recap (3 mins)
Lesson 5: Stage 4: Prototyping Your Ideas
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5.1: Welcome and Introduction (6 mins)
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5.2: The Key Benefits of Prototyping (11 mins)
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5.3: Why You Need to Prototype and How to Start Off Right (22 mins)
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5.4: What Is a Prototype? (27 mins)
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5.5: How to Gain Insights From Prototyping: Stage 4 in the Design Thinking Process (25 mins)
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5.6: 5 Common Low-Fidelity Prototypes and Their Best Practices (40 mins)
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5.7: 6 Common Pitfalls in Prototyping and How to Avoid Them (20 mins)
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5.8: From Prototype to Product: Ensure That Your Solution Is Feasible and Viable (56 mins)
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5.9: Discussion (6 mins)
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5.10: Build Your Portfolio Project: Prototype (11 mins)
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5.11: Congratulations and Recap (3 mins)
Lesson 6: Stage 5: Testing Design Solutions
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6.1: Welcome and Introduction (5 mins)
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6.2: Stage 5 in the Design Thinking Process: Test (43 mins)
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6.3: 6 Different Types of Evaluative Research and When to Use Them (26 mins)
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6.4: Why Usability Test? (48 mins)
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6.5: Heuristic Evaluation: How to Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation (34 mins)
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6.6: Test Your Prototypes: How to Gather Feedback and Maximize Learning (28 mins)
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6.7: 4 Common Pitfalls in Usability Testing and How to Avoid Them to Get More Honest Feedback (21 mins)
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6.8: Discussion (7 mins)
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6.9: Build Your Portfolio Project: Test (15 mins)
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6.10: Congratulations and Recap (3 mins)
Lesson 7: Course Certificate, Final Networking, and Course Wrap-Up
Learning Paths
This course is part of 10 learning paths:
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UX Designer Learning Path22 courses in 4 parts
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Interaction Designer Learning Path18 courses in 4 parts
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Visual Designer Learning Path17 courses in 4 parts
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Usability Expert Learning Path12 courses in 4 parts
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UI Designer Learning Path15 courses in 4 parts
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Front-End Developer Learning Path8 courses in 4 parts
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Product Manager Learning Path17 courses in 4 parts
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Marketer Learning Path12 courses in 3 parts
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User Researcher Learning Path13 courses in 3 parts
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Executive Learning Path10 courses in 3 parts
How Others Have Benefited
Emma Brazil, Netherlands
“I love the diversity of approaches in teaching. Videos, images, graphs, handbooks, additional articles, multiple choice questions, and discussion topics. It kept me engaged and alert throughout the entire course. It was not just a 'walk in the park' course, and for that, I actually feel like I've learned many new valuable things - patting myself on the back with my completion.”
Mahar Nazir, India
“The instructor's major strengths are her enthusiasm for the subject, her ability to make the material accessible to students of all levels, and her commitment to engaging students in an interactive learning experience. She is also flexible and accommodating when it comes to helping students work through challenging concepts. Her course is well-structured and organised, and she provides a variety of resources to support student learning. She takes the time to get to know her students and is available to answer any questions they may have.”
JINTO KACHIRAYIL MANI, Canada
“The instructors have a deep understanding of the course topic and possess expertise in the subject matter they are teaching. Their knowledge and experience contributed to the credibility and quality of the course.”
How It Works
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