HCD Workshops
Workshops for All
Our HCD Workshops engage learners with activities and practices associated with the six mindsets of Human-Centered Design, and serve as practical explorations of each of the five spaces of the Design Thinking process
Open to all University of Illinois students, RSOs, groups, faculty, and staff, these workshops help you apply human-centered design concepts to real-world challenges. Perfect for groups or teams, these interactive sessions can be held at SCD or your location. Please allow at least three weeks' notice to schedule at a time that works for you. Review the menu of offerings below then request a workshop for your group or team today!
Getting Started with
Human-Centered Design
Recommended for your first offering!
Human-Centered Design is a creative problem solving approach that uses design thinking tools to identify the unmet needs of a population in order to collaboratively and iteratively develop relevant and innovative solutions. This workshop provides an introduction to the tools, spaces and processes that define this approach.
Mindsets of HCD: Building Your Design Thinking Toolkit
Most requested workshop!
Practicing Human-Centered Design isn’t only about learning the process, but adopting certain mindsets that are critical for problem solving. In this two-hour workshop, learners will engage in activities that foster Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, Experimentation, Human-Centeredness, and Metacognition. Join us to explore and practice getting into the right mindset so you can approach any design challenge.
Systems
Thinking
This workshop will introduce participants to the fundamentals of systems thinking and explore how it can deepen their design practice. Through interactive exercises, we’ll examine how viewing challenges from a systems perspective enables more holistic, sustainable solutions. Participants will gain insights into mapping systems, identifying leverage points, and applying these methods to design more impactful, human-centered solutions.
Building
Creative Confidence
Creativity is a vital part of human-centered design, and a core skill for 21st-century learners. Human-centered design can motivate learners to develop a creative mindset that facilitates problem-solving through collaboration and critical thinking. Developing creative confidence - the belief that we all have the potential to innovate and solve problems through creative outcomes - will take you even further. Join us to learn the essential qualities to fostering creativity, and participate in activities designed to encourage creative confidence.
Discover and Define: Understanding the Problem
When practicing human-centered design, it’s important to connect with the people you are designing for—their lives, their interests, their motivations, and their struggles. Learn how to take a human-centered approach to gathering information that will provide a compass when designing to solve complex problems.
Synthesizing Insights:
Turning Data into Action
Synthesis is the area of human-centered design that takes us from inspiration to ideas, and from stories to solutions. In addition to discovering practical pathways toward new perspectives, participants will learn to identify innovative opportunities by collaboratively making sense of others’ stories and challenges.
Ideation Techniques: Unleashing Your Creativity
We all have good ideas from time to time, but how can we intentionally ideate to develop innovative solutions to complex problems? Learn about and practice collaborative, intentional ideation to generate ideas, communicate them to others, receive feedback, and keep iterating to generate groundbreaking solutions to real-world problems.
Hands-On Prototyping:
Bringing Concepts to Life
This workshop will introduce participants to the process of prototyping in human-centered design. The two-hour session will cover topics such as low fidelity vs. high fidelity prototyping, prototyping methods, and the value of prototyping during your design process. Participants will have the opportunity to create their own lo-fi prototypes.
Simulating Solutions: Prototyping Experiences
Prototyping gives designers the opportunity to create, communicate, and evaluate the ideas that have been developed over the human-centered design process. In this workshop, learners will experiment with prototyping the intangible - experiences! Learn how prototyping can help your designed digital or in-person experiences to reach their goal, whether that's to delight, inform, or motivate.
Implementing Solutions: From Prototype to Reality
After multiple prototyping iterations, you arrive at a final design. It is time to implement your design in the market. Learn about developing implementation plans, ways to sustain and evolve your design, and tools to execute and scale your design.
* For more information, contact Amber Dewey Schultz, amber@illinois.edu