Foundation staff meet at the IDEO offices in San Francisco, CA to learn about the Human-Centered Design Toolkit (HCD). IDEO, in collaboration with nonprofit groups the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and Heifer International, developed the HCD Toolkit to help international staff and volunteers understand a community’s needs in new ways, find innovative solutions to meet those needs, and deliver solutions with financial sustainability in mind.

How can design address real-life challenges and help create a more equitable world? Designers often focus their designs to meet the needs of a specific type of person or community. In human-centered design, building empathy and understanding of a person’s needs is a top priority.

After choosing your challenge, you’ll learn everything you can about the people and the key issues at the heart of your cause. You’ll then begin brainstorming opportunities for designing solutions. And finally, you’ll share your design with the world.

Step 1

Choose Your Cause

What cause would you like to focus on?

Identify a cause you care about from the list below. Once you have decided on a cause, choose one of the four questions as the basis for your design solution.

Housing Social Justice Environment Education Health Community

Which question would you like to address?

Step 2

Research & Discover

In your research, identify and uncover the circumstances that define your cause. Researching and developing an intimate knowledge of who will use your idea, where it will be used, and the resources you have at your disposal are all key to designing solutions that people will use. The solution you design can be an object, an initiative, a campaign, a tool, or even an event.

What is your goal?

Begin by researching your cause, gather background information and helpful statistics.

What are you trying to solve?
How will you define success?

Who is this for?

Research and gather input from the person or community of people you’re looking to help, and consider their needs and limitations.

Who will have access to and benefit from your design?
Do they have any economic barriers?

What is the location?

Different environments can influence the outcome and success of your design.

Where will the design be used?
How might cultural traditions inform your design?
What is the climate like where it will be used?

What resources are available?

The resources you have at your disposal, and the resources available to the people and communities you are designing with, will impact your design approach.

Who are your potential collaborators?
Are there any materials readily available?
Can you use sustainable materials that will lessen its impact on the environment?
Can the design be made open-source so it can be altered and adopted by other audiences and communities to help more people?

Step 3

Think, Make & Evaluate

Once you have done the research, you are ready to brainstorm ideas. Below are some exercises to help you generate, develop, and iterate on potential solutions.

Exercise 1 — Think

Start brainstorming! Take 5 to 10 minutes to write down 15 or more potential solutions. There are no rules to brainstorming, no idea is too far-fetched. Go!

Exercise 2 — Make

A group of attendees collaborate using a white board to share ideas at the College-Ready Summer Work Weeks convening at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, WA on July 23, 2013.

Identify the 3 strongest ideas from your brainstorm and create 3 sketches around each one. Think back to your research, remember the materials you have access to, who you are designing with, and how the design will be used. Using the materials you have available, elaborate on your sketch, create an outline, or make a rough model.

Exercise 3 — Evaluate

Students in Lindsay Berk's 7th grade science class use tissue samples and microscopes to learn about cell structure at Chinook Middle School in SeaTac, WA on January 25, 2016.

Great ideas often fail and some of the best ideas go through rounds of edits. Imagine possible pitfalls or problems you might encounter and assess the pros and cons of each idea. Armed with this new knowledge, can you redesign your ideas to be stronger? After evaluating and modifying your ideas, which one is most likely to succeed?

Step 4

Share Your Idea

Once you have designed your solution, the next step is to present it to the world. Share your experiences and inspire others to innovate and create!

Using the IN PROCESS photo generator below, upload an image or two of your project, then download the filtered photo and share on your social media accounts. Be sure to use #DesignForAll and tag @DiscoverGates.

In the real world, your work isn’t done.

Most design ideas undergo constant revision to help improve them. Gathering feedback and new ideas from those you’re looking to help, your community, and experts is critical.

See how others have used the design process. Some of the projects were created by experts in their field, while others were created by students and community advocates. All of them were created by people who used design to help make a change they wanted to see in the world.

All images uploaded to the IN PROCESS filter via this site are not saved or used in any way by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation or its partners. Images generated are for personal use by the user only.

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