1. The Design Method Toolkit
The design method toolkit was created to allow multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary teams to work using an agile framework to tackle challenges by using design thinking.
As part of the MediaLAB Amsterdam, it was identified that there were issues when having multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams to have a common language when tackling projects. The Design Method Toolkit was developed to help minimise the friction that this could cause. It is a curated collection of methods, that have been split into tasks that team members can perform themselves and that can guide teams through a design thinking process.
The Design Method Toolkit is structured so that teams can start from one of two starting points. First, from a perspective of research, aimed at when the team feels that they don’t have enough information to tackle the challenge and want to start by researching about the topic. The second approach, if the team has a strong assumption about how to tackle the challenge, they can start creating prototypes or artefacts, this will allow them to quickly test those assumptions. Therefore the Design Method Toolkit has a two layer structure. The first layer is about the way the team wants to start working (Research or Create).
Aside from deciding the starting point, the design method toolkit helps to follow a design thinking approach by having the following five categories. Depending on which part of the design thinking process a team might be, the categorisation helps to pick the relevant methods for that particular phase.
The Design Method Toolkit was developed based on the experience of the MediaLAB Amsterdam, where we found that using a SCRUM in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams posed a challenge. There wasn’t consensus within the teams on what methods to use, or even what the methods entailed.
When I started on this project, there had already been a first iteration. I helped in selecting the methods for the second iteration and have been in charge of curating the methods. At the same time, I decided to enhance the usability by simplifying the cards themselves and by making sure all of the tasks within the toolkit were SCRUMable. This meant making sure that all the methods were divided into smaller tasks, that could be written on a scrum board as tasks and could be assigned to team members.
Website
For the website the design, I aimed to have users have a similar experience as they would with the physical toolkit. Therefore, the cards flip and behave as if they were regular cards on the screen. The website, allows users to filter based on time, or any of the categories the methods have. You can visit the website here.
Next steps
Right now we are busy with expanding the Toolkit to cater to more specialised challenges. We have a Global Goals Toolkit and Visualisation toolkit in development.
I am working on setting up the groundwork for future toolkits and making sure that there is a sturdy framework that can be used by different experts to be able to create relevant toolkits on different topics, at the moment there is a Business Method Toolkit, Visualisation Method Toolkit and Global Goals Toolkit in development. The framework needs to support the physical and digital toolkits.
This means expanding the functionalities and making sure there is a design system that allows a consistent look and feel, while giving enough freedom to each toolkit so that it is recognisable and distinct.
