I finally got round to finishing the Human Centred Design course run by IDEO.org through the Novoed platform.
Despite a few teething problems in the delivery of the course the content was excellent and a really great introduction into HCD and the work of IDEO generally. The basis of the experience was not sitting learning from videos and commenting on forums. Instead participants are encouraged to form working groups to go through the exercises and explore a real world problem. There are a few hiccups that would make the course far better to take if they could be ironed out, however IDEO ask for feedback at various points in the process and you would hope considering the ethos that they would take on board anything salient.
Considering that over 10,000 people took the course in the single cohort that I joined it really is a massive undertaking and a great achievement when the content is delivered free with a certificate of participation upon completion.
The work of IDEO creates a great basis for this; the social nature of their projects means that any groups with a good idea have a chance to move forward and progress it towards a real-life solution. Work submitted is also synthesised into IDEO’s organisational thinking, so it is great to know that what you are doing might make a change somewhere.
I worked with two friends who I met through the Global Ram Jam weekend, Jean Mutton and Simon Redding. Both are experienced service designer who have an interest in LEAN business.
I’ve included the final presentation we put together for our project solution. I hope that you like enjoy it. If you’re interested in learning more about Human Centred Design or LEAN, I recommend you check out the range of courses available from IDEO and +ACUMEN which can be found here.