Design Methods Finder

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Project phase

Analysis49

Conception51

Realization15

Evaluation20

Focus

User42

Ideas34

Data18

Topic

Empathy26

Innovation27

Communication26

Market22

User Group35

Forecast21

Process22

Relation23

Activities

question25

testing13

develop35

design15

evaluate23

arrange13

observe19

combine25

explain27

research27

open for Filter and Search Tag Suggestions

Project phase

Analysis49

Conception51

Realization15

Evaluation20

Focus

User42

Ideas34

Data18

Topic

Empathy26

Innovation27

Communication26

Market22

User Group35

Forecast21

Process22

Relation23

Activities

question25

testing13

develop35

design15

evaluate23

arrange13

observe19

combine25

explain27

research27

All Methods

(70)

Affinity Diagram

Sort, structure and organize data, information or individual elements according to relationships and contexts.

Alignment Diagram

Visually combining the user side and the business side

Arrange terms or information by relation, similarity, and relationship to each other on an XY axis diagram.

Be Your Customer

The manufacturer or company representative actively puts himself in the position of his own customers in order to describe and uncover their actual needs from his point of view.

Behavioral Mapping

Visual documentation of the positions and routes of persons in a defined area, within a certain period of time.

Bet-Cost-Matrix

Technique for evaluating the potential of ideas to generate value in relation to their cost

Put oneself in the position of someones specific situations with theater or role play to quickly generate ideas or to test developed concepts and products.

Boundary Shifting

Problem boundaries are shifted to find solutions to problems in a broader or another knowledge field.

By spontaneously expressing ideas without rejecting criticism, a large number of ideas for a given problem are developed and collected.

Visual documentation of user's personal impressions when using a product to reveal strengths and weaknesses.

Sort concepts into groups in an early project phase, for example to develop logical and user-friendly navigation or menu structures.

Less to non-functional preliminary stage of a prototype to test usability at an early stage.

Test persons outline from their memory a cognitive map of a room to identify its vulnerabilities in relation to the user movement.

Collaborative Sketching

Generate and expand ideas quickly by simultaneously sketching together.

Visual representation of complex and abstract topics, for a better understanding of the user.

Competitive Product Survey

Collect, compare and evaluate information about similar (competitor) products and competitors.

Concept Mapping

Create a map of terms (mind map) on which knowledge is visualized and structured.

Content Design and UI Mapping

Gather, manage, publish and “display” content independently on any UI

Contextual Inquiry

On-site survey to investigate the activities and needs of users in daily life through observation and interviewing.

The Emotion Map classifies basic human needs (or values) to the six most important needdrivers.

Needs of users with special physical limitations are simulated through the use of different tools.

Event Tree Analysis

Inductive system-analytical method to determine possible consequences of an occurring error in a system.

Extreme User Interview

Creative input through atypical interviews with people who are very or very unfamiliar with the core problem.

A pseudo-final project status is defined to develop a presentable result within an artificially shortened period of time.

Ask a person five consecutive questions to recognize their basic attitude and behavior towards a problem or topic.

Show someone a design without explanation to get fast unfiltered feedback.

Display of individual steps of a process or information flow within a process or system.

Survey of conscious and unconscious attitudes, expectations and attitudes of customers, users or experts towards products.

Imperfect Personas

Personas (and scenarios) are often too perfect. Not human enough. Be raw and avoid blinding yourself with imperfect personas.

Jobs to be Done

People hire a product to get a job done. JTBD uncovers relevant jobs.

Letter to Grandma

Description of the task or the project goal to find out the essence in a nutshell.

Get acquainted with behaviors and customer needs through interviews and use a diagram to show all the steps people take to reach a goal or complete a task.

Brainwriting technique for generating new unusual ideas and / or their systematic further development in a group

Visual composition of images and materials to communicate a general impression of an atmosphere, user worlds, moods and visual qualities.

Morphological Charts

Recombine alternative components of a product in a visual representation

Quickly making decisions and prioritizing a large amount of topics without getting lost in details

Object Handling Analysis

Observe and document how a person uses an object or program to detect potential weaknesses.

Systematic gathering of objectively perceptible facts at the time of their occurrence, for example to detect usability problems.

Analyze an existing product or process using a predefined questionnaire to develop new perspectives and solutions.

Paper Prototyping

Quickly visualize basic concepts at an early stage and test them for possible usability problems.

Personal Inventory

Documenting the position and nature of personal belongings in the familiar environment of a person (or group of persons) in order to better understand them.

Modeling the different representative users (user groups) in the form of prototypical fictitious personalities for the requirement-oriented development of a product or an applicati

Pinboard Moderation

Development, collection, visualization, organization and evaluation of ideas in a team.

Predict Next Year's Headline

In an early phase of the project, find out where the client sees himself with his company in the future and which product features can then be relevant.

Problem Framing

Problem framing is a tool to align stakeholders and develop accurate design solutions and therefore helps to understand the problem per se.

Process Mapping

Mapping a process with all participants and process steps.

Product Vision Board

Describe, visualise, and validate your product vision and your product strategy

Create an interactive and (partially) functional digital design dummy of an application to identify problems early and respond to user needs.

Quick and Dirty Prototyping

Available materials are used to illustrate shapes or interactions very quickly

By combining words that are not related at first glance, new ideas or solutions to problems are generated.

Rapid Ethnography

Quick collection of ethnographic data to analyze user needs.

Remote Moderated Usability Test

Quick and cheap method for usability testing which delivers good information about usage and user behavior

To bring about a change of perspective through a role play, in order to look at topic- or problem-related questions from a different angle.

Scenario Testing

Test the reactions to a described or visualized idea on test persons.

Presenting, communicating and testing the core of an idea within the potential context of use with a comprehensible story.

Semantic Differential

A survey tool to gather the emotional user acceptance of specific products, circumstances or plans.

Sinus milieus are target groups that really exist. It is a model that groups people according to their views of life and ways of life.

A strategy tool to map and assess the dependencies of different factors and their consequences within a company or system.

Haptic and open-ended idea generation using illustrated or labeled cubes to explore relationships and develop ideas.

Support of a conceptual design, through sketchy graphical representation and description.

Surveys and Questionnaires

Ask specific questions to ask for information about products, behavior and trends from the user.

Situation analysis tool to derive appropriate strategic solution alternatives to achieve the goals.

System Usability Scale

The questionnaire is a “quick and dirty” option to measure usability.

Try It Yourself

A designed product or project draft is used in everyday life and tested on oneself to check for possible sources of error.

Usability Testing

Empirical evaluation to check the usability of a software or hardware with the potential users.

Use Case Modelling

Specify the functional requirements and objectives for the development of an application.

In a personal interview, find out the behavior, problems and wishes of users.

A process model that supports an agile and human-centered approach for planning and executing digital development projects with interdisciplinary teams.

Vision Prototype

Linear or interactive sequence of screens or mockups to enthuse customers or potential decision makers for a solution.

Walt Disney Method

On the basis of a role play, several people look at and discuss a situation from three different perspectives (roles).

The Design Method Finder is a UX and PM method data base with quick access to a lot of interesting and potentially helpful methods.