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HUMAN
CENTEREDD ES I G N (H C D)
D E S I G N S TAG E
CONCEPT GUIDE

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

Purpose of This Guide
The purpose of this Design Guide and its sister Design
Phase Operations Guide (available Fall 2019) is not to
make an exhaustive list of design processes. There are
many other works can do that for you, some of which
we cite throughout this work. The purpose of this
guide is to provide context and some select methods
for designing products, services, and systems that
will help solve the problems highlighted from your
Discovery phase. While the Operations Guide will
focus on the How of the making process, this Concept
Guide helps you understand the Why behind the How.
After learning the Why, you will be able to cross-apply
the contents of these Guides to other situations and
expanding your understanding of how to grapple with
complex problems. Eventually, you may find yourself
able to contribute back to this work with original
methods of your own making. That, in fact, would
be the author’s and sponsors’ greatest measure of
success: for you to take what you have learned here
and create original work from your learnings.

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

Participants, Not Users

Team Structure

Throughout this Guide, we will refer to the people for

The Design Phase team should include the team

whom we’re designing as participants. This is because

members from the Discovery Phase. This team’s

the people for whom we’re designing are participating

in-depth understanding of the research as well as

in the use of the products, services, and systems we

their practice in working together will help to ensure

design. They might participate by using our products,

a successful Design phase that results in a useful,

services, and systems in different ways than we

positive Delivery and Measure phase experience for

intended, adapting them to their own needs, or they

the participants and stakeholders.

might use them for a while and abandon them. In this
way, the participants have an active role in the life
cycle of our work. This approach is sometimes called
Participatory Design; you can learn about and practice
it in detail in Participatory Design, one of the Lab’s

If someone from the Discovery Phase isn’t available
to join the Design Phase, review the team structure
you built based on the guidance on pages 22-31 in the
Discovery Phase Operations Guide and evaluate which

open enrollment classes.

piece you might be missing. More in-depth guidance

In contrast, thinking of participants as “users” or

in the upcoming Design Phase Operations Guide

“customers” sidelines them into simply receiving

(available Fall 2019).

products, services, and systems. This creates either a
supplicant (i.e., please give me the thing or service) or
an entitled (e.g., I deserve the thing or service without
reservation and in the exact way I want it) orientation.
This orientation separates and creates a power imbalance between the leadership stakeholders sponsoring
the work, the design teams researching and creating
the work, and participants contributing their knowl-

on team roles for the Design Phase will be provided

If your Design phase will almost certainly require
technical expertise that your Discovery team does
not have, such as engineering, social work, or graphic
design skills, identify and recruit an available and
sympathetic expert in that area as soon as possible.
By including this person in your core team before you
start the design work itself, the team will benefit from

edge and voices to the work’s development.

their input, and they will be able to invest more deeply

In Human-Centered Design, both the designers and

realize your product, service, or system vision.

the people for whom the designed products, services,
and systems are made participate in the design, use,
and evaluation processes. Participants are equal to the
design team and the leadership stakeholders, and the
project as a whole is driven primarily by participants’
input. While the designers create the prototypes or
models for solutions to participant needs, they can
only create and refine these products, services, and
systems through continued collaboration with the
participants throughout the design process.

in the project than if they were brought in simply to

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

Table of Contents
Purpose of this Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Participants, Not Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Team Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Human-Centered Design... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-9
HCD Process Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-11
Design Phase Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-27
Designed Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-35
Communicating Ideas Through Design . . . . . . 36-49
Design & Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50-51
What’s Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Thanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54-55
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Template Consent Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Introduction / HCD

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

Human-Centered Design
What is HCD?

HCD in Practice

Human-Centered Design (HCD) is a problem-solving, design-based

The HCD approach has already created immense value in advancing public sector missions. For example,

discipline that quickly moves ideas for products, services, and systems

redesigning USAJOBS, the hub for federal hiring where nearly 1 billion job searches are done annually

from concept to prototype so that it can be tested with participants to

by over 180 million people, has resulted in a 30% reduction in help desk tickets after the first round of

see if it meets their needs. These prototypes are developed with the

improvements. Not only does this reflect an easier experience for those involved in the hiring process,

people who will ultimately use the product or service, and reflect their

this change also creates savings in support costs.

values and needs.
It requires rigorous qualitative research, directing that research
towards the goal of deeply understanding the needs, insights, and
emotions of customers. By using Human-Centered Design, we can
focus our time, resources, and energy on solutions and innovations
that make service delivery effective, easy, and in tune with the emo-

HCD and LEAN

tions of our participants.

HCD and LEAN complement each other. HCD is

LEAN

based heavily on qualitative research, while LEAN

HCD

is quantitative. LEAN enacts the first two Es of
DESIRABILITY LENS

customer experience: Ease and Effectiveness, very

The Desirability Lens from the design
consultancy IDEO illustrates that
Human-Centered Design should focus
at the intersection of what customers
want (DESIRABLE), what is possible with
current means (FEASIBLE), and what can
work within constraints (VIABLE).

well. HCD also enacts Ease and Effectiveness,
DISCOVER

DESIGN

DELIVER

MEASURE

EASE

but adds the third E, Emotion, into the process,
through an understanding of human needs, and
identification of the desired experience.
The two methods complement each other. HCD
helps to define the desired customer experience

E F F EC T I V E N E S S

E M OT I O N

front-stage, and then LEAN can be used to architect
HCD involves four phases of sequential work: discovery, design, de-

the backstage to deliver on that desired experience.

livery, and measurement. HCD is also cyclical. Once a design solution
is launched, we measure its effectiveness against initial and intended

Human-Centered Design and other qualitative

aims, and then we continually tweak it, thus improving the solution

research methodologies investigate and help sort

over time. HCD recognizes that people and their needs are dynamic

HCD allows us to understand the types of experiences participants

“What people say, and what people do, and
what people say they do are entirely different
things.”

want from a system, product or service. We refer to their experience

-Dr. Margaret Mead, Anthropologist

and changing and so our solutions must be dynamic and changing.

out the root causes of conflicts like the one above
by Dr. Margaret Mead.
LEAN and other quantitative methodologies allow
for the understanding of current system states and

as the “front stage” of the design effort. HCD also helps us craft the

the rational correction of mechanical and nonhu-

interactions of the people, processes, and technology that create those

man inefficiencies in systems.

desired experiences. We refer to this behind-the-scenes work as “the
back stage” of the design effort. By tending to the front stage and the
back stage, HCD allows us to put the customer at the center of our
design development.

Introduction / HCD

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

The HCD Process Cycle
HCD Process
HCD is a cyclical process with different phases,

build qualitative and quantitative measurement

with each phase moving between divergent and

points into this phase as well.

convergent modes of thinking. In Discovery, a team
diverges through desk research, then converges on
a problem frame, and diverges again when listening
to the points of view of the participants.

Finally, the Measurement requires that the team
and stakeholders not only converge around the collection the data from the measurement points built
in the previous sections, but also think divergently

The Design phase’s ideation, or idea generation,

in their parsing of that data. Divergent thinking

requires divergent thinking, then convergence

in this phase is also known as interpreting the

around a few viable options to prototype and test.

data, or creating understanding or meaning from

This prototyping and testing also requires that the

the data. The data itself will not give the team and

team start considering the potential measurement

stakeholders insights and direction on where to go

points for the designed product or solution.

next; the interpretation of data provides those.

These measurement points include a spectrum
of measuremnets built on both quantitative and
qualitative data points. This will allow the design
team and stakeholders to gain a robust evaluation
the product or service, once it has been deployed.

HCD Phases: A Breakdown

At each stage, the team is aware that a return to

Discovery

Deliver

a previous stage might be necessary. The HCD

This Design Guide series began with the Discovery

After prototyping and testing, public sector design

phase. Both Concept (why) and Operations (how)

teams typically work with implementation teams

guides are available for this research-focused

and other stakeholders to create a small pilot and

phase. To review, in the Discovery phase, teams

test the logistical needs around the launch of the

participate in research to gather participants’ and

product, system, or service the team has designed.

stakeholders’ perspectives and experiences in that

The teams should build into the delivery process

frame, synthesize the results of that gathering, and

mechanisms to gather feedback on the product,

define possible parameters for the Design phase.

service, or system once it has been in the hands

process is not strictly linear, progressing from
one stage to another; it is subject to informed and
intentional revision at all points, which gives it its

Delivery includes divergence around modes of

cyclical nature. The balance between when to move

delivery and collaboration with implementation

forward and when to revise is sometimes a tough

teams, then convergence around an workable

one to strike, but through practice and mentorship

model. The creation of measurement points also

through this process, practitioners can refine their

exist in this phase. Since the delivery of and access

instincts for when this balance point is struck, and

to a product or service is an integral part of that

when it feels like a project might need to re-cycle

product’s or service’s success, the team should

through a phase again.

Design

of participants for stipulated amounts of time.
Creating these mechanisms will feed into the
success of the next phase, Measure.

With your insights gathered and opportunities
defined, teams enter the Design phase. This phase
is characterized by working through design ideas

Measure

and building models, also called prototypes, of

In the Measure phase, the design team should be

design solutions. Instead of trying to make the first

part of gathering quantitative and qualitative data

version of a design perfect, the team will prior-

to learn if the goals and expectations of your work

itize iteration, testing, and making incremental

are being met. When applied, this data will help

refinements. Build, test and repeat. As the team

improve your design.

and stakeholders converge around a best product or
service solution, refinements can be made to start
moving towards a product, system, or service that
will be the team’s final deliverable.

Human-Centered Design: Discovery Stage Field Guide

Discovery Stage Research Cycle / Before / Brief and Frame

Design Phase Principles
Design teams frequently create a set of guiding principles for their projects’ Design Phases. These principles
help teams maintain alignment with the key learnings from the Discovery Phase. Below, find a set of global

What are the things we design in
the government?

design principles. These principles, alongside those that you might create for your specific project, will help
ensure that the designed product, service, or solution that your team develops embodies the perspectives

The government does not have a product or product

products, services, or systems require a design

and needs of your current and potential participants.

suite that it sells, and it does not package a variety

process — and that process is more impactful when

of services or systems to sell at a profit, as private

it is conscious, careful, and intentional, or not.

companies do. For this reason, you might be asking

1. Getting to Simple is Hard

yourself, “Well, what designs does the public
sector actually need? Why do we need design in the
government, anyway?”. In fact, the public sector

2. No Solitary Geniuses

constantly designs products, services, and systems.
Just because they’re not offered for sale does not
mean that they don’t exist or aren’t, in fact “real”

3. In Their Shoes
4. Consider Potential Change

products and services. They just function for public

7. Serve Everyone and Define Your Audience
8. Wait for the Right Opportunity
9. Designs Have a Life Cycle

single entities (often with multiple manifestations,
such as military uniforms), they are also often
integral parts of designed services and systems.
Products may be stand-alone items, but services
and systems are more complicated designed things
because they always include more facets.

Traditionally, public sector products, services, and

As an example, consider the National Parks System.

systems were designed largely from a policy angle.
Policy makers and subject matter experts would
were needed. More recently, however, government
entities have realized that harnessing the power of
design-specific methodologies like Human-Cen-

6. Plan For Long Term Use

exclusive entities. While products are most often

service instead of for commercial offerings.

look at data and create the items they believed

5. Value New Participants

Products, services, and systems are not mutually

tered Design and specialized design practitioners
can result in more effective and more sustainable

First, its name includes “system”
, but “system” as
used in its name indicates that it is a group of parks
that form a network of protected geographical
areas and historical monuments. As a designed
thing, the National Park System is a system
including an over-arching, large-scale service of
maintaining parkland that is supported by many
different component parts. The single entity

product and service solutions.

called the National Parks System includes multiple

So what are some public sector designs? Examples

do most services and systems. One may think of

of public service product design include drivers’

the National Parks System as just a bunch of open

licenses, building permit applications, and in-

air maintained by the Department of Interior, but

terstate signage, while examples of public sector

the system’s component services include wilder-

service design include the system of free school

ness preservation services, scientific research

lunch distribution, the Medicare system, and the

opportunities, natural resource maintenance, and

National Park System. Each of these examples has

historical preservation. Some of its component

roots in laws, policies, and initiatives from legisla-

products include signage, websites, apps, uniforms,

tures, agencies, and other government bodies, but

housing, and many others. We discuss this further

growing the ideas from their roots into functional

in the Products & Services section.

products, services, and systems within itself, as

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

Design Phase Principles
PURPOSE
These explanations of the design principles outlined previously should help you
contextualize why the authors of this
Guide have selected these principles
as items to keep top-of-mind during
your design phase. This section should
also act as a reference throughout your
design process.

Simple is Hard

Case In Point

Team

1. Getting to Simple is Hard

The Semester Model as a Rational Time

2. In Their Shoes

Constraint

If you’ve heard the old saying “it takes all kinds

“How long will this take?” has to be one of the most terrifying questions any designer will be asked when embarking on the design phase.
The simple answer: one can’t know — but rational time constraints
can be useful. What we do know, from years of experience and many,

INTRODUCTION
The Global Design Phase principles are a
high-level, project-type-agnostic means
of defining Design-phase work. They
allow us as designers and design teams
to constantly align our designs to the
needs and desires of our audience and
are applicable across the fields for
which we design in the Public Sector.
As teams create and iterate during the
Design phase, they run the risk of losing
touch with the urgency of the needs and
values expressed by participants during
the Discovery phase. Having a set of
guiding principles gives design teams
the parameters they need to constantly
reference participants’ needs and perspectives as the design phase proceeds.

many design case studies, is that getting to a simple, easy-to-understand, and useful solution to any design problem is the result of many
rounds of iteration, problem-solving, and testing. Leadership and
clients should not expect a design solution to be completely finished in
a month, especially if the team is working on multiple projects either
together or apart, but defining the term of the design phase rationally
can help the phase move along.
Making Decisions
A successful design phase requires the team to make a lot of decisions.
Some of these include: what to design, how to make a model or prototype of it, who to test with, how to test it, how to get on those peoples’
calendars, how long to wait before finding other people to test with,
how to integrate their feedback, and how to move through iterations
on that feedback.
This process can be anxiety-inducing, as it means the design won’t
meet all the needs of all the participants. This decision-making is,

REFERENCES

however, necessary. What a design team is trying to do is to make a
precisely useful solution for a precise problem, not to make a large,
unwieldy solution that tries (and fails) to solve all the problems

Additional Research Methods
Other resources for design principles
can be found from the following groups
and resources:
•
•
•
•

18F Methods
NYC Civic Service Design Group:
Tools & Tactics
UK Design Group Case Studies
The Book Apart Series, specifically
Design for Real Life by Eric Meyer &
Sara Wachter-Boettcher

encountered by the participants.

to make the world go ‘round,” then you know what
We will go further into the details of scheduling

this principle is about. Designing for those unlike

a design phase in the Design Phase Operations

yourselves depends on the practices of empathy.

Guide, but for now, one useful rule of thumb is

Practicing empathy means creating designs that

based on a very familiar time unit, the aca-

will work for the participants.

demic semester. The Semester Model can also
be compared to “Epics” in the Agile process*.

The word “empathy” is often used in the design

These timelines generally consists of twelve

circles to describe an ideal emotional state between

to fifteen weeks of continuous work. Graduate

designers and participants in which the designers

thesis-level design projects typically an entire

have so deeply learned about the participants’

semester with students primarily working on

experience with a product, service, system, or

their own or with a tight team and focusing on

lack thereof, that they can, as nearly as possible,

nothing else. If your team meets the criteria of

stand the shoes of the participants themselves.

tightly working together and narrowly focusing

Practicing this emotional intelligence during the

on the immediate task of product, service, or

Design phase allows designers to create solutions

system development, then a semester (12 - 15

for people whose experiences they may never have,

weeks) might be a good timeline for producing

but with whom they can empathize successfully

design work that has been developed through

codesign new or evolved products, services, and

an iterative process and tested with either one

systems that improve participants’ future experi-

or two rounds of partcipants, depending on

ences.

how easy it is to schedule time with them. At
12 weeks, you can reasonably be able to offer
your leadership and stakeholders a (hopefully
brief) report on your design phase, including
iterations and testing, and plan to move into
secondary testing and piloting. More on this
process in the Feedback section.

The team has practiced empathy throughout the
Discovery phase during Interviews (Discovery
Phase Concept Guide, pages 16 - 21). As you move
deeper into design, remember that deep empathy
or sympathy you developed. Lean on that while
iterating in order to design for your participants,
even if they are widely different from yourselves.

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

WHY HAVE DESIGN PHASE
PRINCIPLES?

Case In Point
VEO and Transitioning Veterans

Project Level Principles
In addition to these global design principles, individual teams team might consider creating a set of guiding principles
tailored to the specific project on which
they’re working. For example, if the
design idea is to create a knowledge
sharing repository for a department, a
principle of the design phase could be
to center the design of the repository’s
submission structure on how the department members want to submit articles
and notes, not how it would be easiest to
build from a technical standpoint.

Case In Point

The myth of a solitary genius solving a huge

Global Principles
Principles help teams maintain focus
on their main objective while throughout a multi-parted, challenging design
process. For this reason, design teams
frequently create a set of guiding principles for their projects at the start of
their design phase. These principles can
be derived from the Opportunity spaces
identified at the end of the Discovery phase. They encompass the main
learnings from the participants in the
Discovery phase; they are not tactical
rules and guidance for the team.

3. No Solitary Geniuses

The VA Welcome Kit is one example of using empathy to design
better experiences. Through hundreds of interviews with
veterans, administrators, and service providers, the Veterans
Experience Office has been able to organize these varied offerings,
opportunities, and earned benefits into a single, well-designed

problem no one else could solve is largely just that
— a myth. Although CEOs, sports team leaders,
and award-winners tend to get public credit, none
of those people achieve their goals without the
consistent, robust support and help of a variety of
other people.

NASA’s Mars Rover
When the NASA undertook to land research
robots called rovers on planet Mars, no one person accomplished the task. Not even one leader
can take credit. Instead, to land and operate a
rover successfully on Mars, NASA assembled

informational package. Through intensive research with veterans

The same holds true in design. Although design

multiple teams of flight and mechanical engi-

and a value and practice of co-design during the Design phase,

clusters around a few big names, like Frank Gehry,

neers, physicists, rocket scientists, designers,

the Welcome Kit improves veterans’ understanding of available

an architect, Jonathon Ive, an industrial designer

project managers, finance specialists, and

services and benefits in the large VA system. Using plain language,

at Apple, Inc, and Miuccia Prada, a fashion de-

others to take on the task.

the Kit strives to bring together the myriad phone numbers,

signer, all of these people have teams with which

registrations, and options a veteran has upon entering VA into a

they work, and no of them designs in a vacuum.

consistent, readable, and modern layout. To design it, VEO spent

Working in teams allows organizations to utilize

a year speaking and co-designing with veterans to understand

the unique backgrounds, training, and natural

and empathize with their confusion regarding benefits and

talents of a variety of people. In the same way that

services during transition. Building this empathy meant VEO sent

design teams go out and talk to participants during

employees and designers to all parts of the United States to talk to

Discovery, they also work as teams that espouse

veterans about that experience. What this research found was that

multiple disciplines. This allows design teams to

veterans bring a range of readinness for civilian life to their period

hear multiple points during the making phase, in

of transition from the military, but that VA could do a lot better to

the same way they heard multiple points of view

smooth that path with consistent, consumable direction regarding

during the Discovery phase.

During the development process, those
teams engaged with the geologists, weather
scientists, chemists, and others who needed
their instruments sent to Mars to perform the
ground-breaking research. When the first rover
landed and started collecting that information,
everyone knew they had contributed to making
that happen. This culture of interdisciplinary
collaboration at NASA has characterized their
workflow since they were established in 1958.

the VA organization.

This is not to say that collaboration is always

Using this information, the team designed the VA Welcome Kit,

interdisciplinary teams bring to the larger

now in use across VA. The Welcome Kit research and design teams

mission is understood and highly valued. This

used empathy to engage with veterans about their experiences.

same logic holds throughout agencies and

The teams came to understand at a minute level veterans’ feelings

missions in the public space; working in teams

of confusion and frustration with VA. The teams synthesize those

allows us to be more effective and have lon-

learnings into the VA Welcome Kit and tested the product exten-

ger-term, positive impact on our core missions

sively with veterans across the country to ensure its utility. In this

than working in single-discipline silos.

way, VEO stepped into the shoes of their product participants in
order to improve their earliest experiences of VA. VA’s Welcome Kit
teams engaged empathetically with, not designed authoritatively
for, veterans across the VA system.

easy or seamless, but that the value that those

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

DEFINING TERMS
In this Guide series’ usage, we define
participants and stakeholders in the
following ways:
participants are people who work with a
product, service, or system in the course
of their normal public usage or workflows, such as entering information on
a website page or pages or processing
that information inside the organization.
stakeholders are people who may not
use the product, service, or system
directly but are responsible for administering those who do use it, approving
funding for its development and maintenance, and understanding the greater
organization in which it functions.

Participants

Case In Point

4. Consider potential change

US Postal Service Package Delivery

In stakeholders
The design process strives to include all possible participants and
stakeholders* in the Discovery phase. The thinking is that, if teams
talk to all the people who work with a product, service, or system as
participants as well as all those who administer, approve, or oversee it
as leadership stakeholders and design with them, then the end result
of the work serve the needs of all those people.

A well-designed product or service continues to
be useful even as circumstances around it may
dramatically change. Back in 1775, the creators
of the US Postal Service could not foresee that
delivery planes, trains, and trucks would one day
replace wagons and horses as the way of getting
packages from here to there. Technology has
radically changed, but the core service offered by
the US Post Office remains relevant today, espe-

However, the new services that characterize
current package services, like flat rate boxes and
weekend delivery, cause a need for the consideration and design for other changes within the
USPS itself. For example, in the age of Sunday delivery, how is personnel distributed and yet labor
contracts still honored? How might an unexpected glut of packages coming from one USPS site
be absorbed into the delivery system quickly and
efficiently? Whenever a public-facing feature is

As we know, the ideal is to codesign solutions with everyone involved.

cially as the number of packages sent continues

Through having open conversations in safe spaces, design teams hope

to increase.

added, all these questions and many more have to

solution(s) before they go to implementation. In reality, sometimes

In fact, much of the boom in online retail could

the types of changes that teams must consider

those open conversations don’t happen often enough, or anxieties

not have occurred without a reliable, low cost

when creating new products, services, or systems

about potential flaws go unsaid. Design teams must champion the

shipping infrastructure already in place. From

in the context of large-scale organizations. One

need for access and time with participants throughout the design

small, single-person shops to industry giants like

change is rarely one change; in an organization

phase as well as continue their empathetic listening from the Discov-

Amazon, the US Postal Services’ package delivery

of any size, considering the potential changes

ery phase during those conversations to hear anxieties or concerns

has allowed businesses of all sizes to engage in

to workflow, personnel, et cetera, that will have

that might be hesitantly offered.

digital interactions that result in three dimen-

to occur to support a new or evolved system is a

sional goods showing up at customers’ doors. This

crucial task of the design team.

to hear the flaws in designs and revise the product(s), service(s), or

In workflow

increase in scale, however, has not been without

As they move through the design phase, teams need to evaluate how

its challenges.

be designed for inside the organization. These are

the proposed solution might change the workflow or unduly increase
the workload for any of these groups. Teams can do this through
talking with these impacted groups as the process goes on, testing

5. Value new participants

with them, and listening to anxieties about being expected to do more

And design for the newest-newbies

with no more time allowances or, conversely, with being cut out of

Your design does not exist in a vacuum. It will

access or workflows they may see as key to their work. Finding these

be integrated into an ecosystem of processes,

participants might seem difficult, but talk to your primary partici-

all of which have their primary participants and

pants to find out who they think might be touched by these changes,

stakeholders. For this reason, it is important to

contact those groups, and set up testing with them.

understand and anticipate the role of new partici-

the organization. When the team is creating an
entirely new product to offer to veterans, or a new
system for school administrators to talk to one
another, then everyone will be a new participant.
Keep in mind, however, that new participants
also come from inside the organization. Whoever

pants in the your proposed designs.

will distribute or administer that new product is

New participants are people who are entirely fresh

consideration of their current workload will all

to the process, either from the public or from inside

need to be addressed.

a new participant. Introductions, training, and a

Human Centered Design: Discovery Stage Field Guide

Public Sector Design

Case In Point
USAJOBS
The USA Jobs website is well-known to many
federal employees. Through this jobs application portal, one can find a position that fits with
a desired career path, background, employment

the hiring process. In addition, unless someone
explicitly reached out to them, they had no way

Case In Point

of knowing whether their application was still

Building Resilient Buildings: The New Orleans

moving through the system or if they had been
dropped from consideration.

VA Medical Center

the past, this site has been run by the federal

These pain points were considered during the

talking about Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The

government as well as by private entities, but

massive redesign of the site from 2015-2018.

citizens of that famous city speak of “before

it has never gotten good reviews, either from

Although still reflective of a maddeningly

the storm” and “after the storm” as markers

new or experienced participants, in terms of

byzantine hiring path, both applicants and

of time and radical change. Katrina flooded

experience or usability.

hiring managers are now able to interact

the 50-year-old VA Medical Center (VAMC) in

through a more modern, transparent system.

New Orleans, ultimately shutting it down and

This improvement was made possible by

causing suffering to some of the city’s most

constant testing both with new and experienced

vulnerable residents.

preference, and General Services level. In

Navigating the site required participants to
understand multiple points about their employment opportunities that they might only
know if they had already had experience with
federal employment. Even if applicants did have
previous understanding of the federal hiring
system, the site’s structure made it almost
impossible to understand if they had successfully applied for a job or not. Applicants had no
visibility into where their application was in

In talking about New Orleans, one cannot avoid

participants as alternations to the site design

In 2016, the city reopened its VA Medical Center.

were proposed and built. No feature of this site
appeared to the public without hearing from

In building this new facility, VA and its partners

participants about their experience with it.

6. Plan for Long Term Use

This sort of large-scale change is possible only

Differences in Need

stead of chalking it up on a once-in-a-century

Design in the Public Sector can seem a slower, more

and flooding even, the building features bed

complicated affair than its Private Sector coun-

capacity for housing people through electrical

terpart. However, each sector has its own unique

outages and has a boat landing on the second

values and pressures, terms to fulfill, and spaces

floor. The planners anticipated that the build-

to explore. While the Private Sector is pressured

ing might be in use for another 50 years, and

by a constant need for increasing profit and the

that those 50 years are full of unknowns. The

short-term thinking that such a challenge requires,

result is a facility that works not only for the

the Public Sector must respond to and support the

current healthcare of the approximately 70,000

public through the long life spans we now enjoy,

veterans in the Gulf Coast region, but also the

which means nurturing ideas that support plan-

community surrounding the facility itself and

ning ahead for decades of growth and change.

that community’s potential, critical needs.

through a long-term commitment to change
that is paired with a constant return to focus on
the participants themselves.

chose to plan for more storms like Katrina, inevent. In order to plan for other violent storms

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

7. Serve Everyone; Define Your Audience

Case In Point

Public Sector Design means planning for all groups affected by the

VA’s Patient Advocacy Tracking System (PATS)

hospital, the research undertaken by VEO and

products, services, and systems we design. It is also inherent to

The Patient Advocacy Tracking System (PATS)

The Lab showed that those service lines would

our work that we make sure that groups of differing abilities, back-

is not a glamorous software product. At its

not necessarily be able to take on this task

grounds, worldviews, ages, and practices are all able to access what

core, it is a data-entry system used by Patient

in addition to their normal medical work. In

Public Sector designers create. This means that the groups needed for

Advocates, who are non-clinical service pro-

response to this research, the team decided to

research and testing are massive, but that need must be addressed if

viders in VA Medical Centers. But its function is

design the system for the needs of the Patient

we want to be sure that tour designs are useful and usable.

incredibly important: to record complaints and

Advocates themselves, because they touch the

compliments veterans have while navigating

system most often and would, according to the

VA Medical Centers (VAMCs) and to track the

research, would continue to manage the reso-

paths to their resolutions and the paths of

lution process, and were willing to work more

compliments through to their dissemination.

closely with the medical lines to enact the new

The numbers generated by the PATS system

procedures as needed in the future.

Precision; not Exclusion
Due to this massive potential audience, design in the public sector can
be intimidating. To get it right, to include everyone, to consider all
the angles, are all pressures design teams feel throughout the design
process. How, then, can a team effectively design for such a massive
number of people as the entire public? To be successful, teams must
proactively and explicitly define the audiences for their work. An
important distinction here is precision in the audience definition
the product, service, or system being designed, not exclusion of
audiences to design. Design teams in the public sector have to be fair
and inclusive of all people, but if a design tries to solve problems for
multiple, overlapping groups, it runs the risk of not functioning well
for anyone. This means making designs that address precise problems
for precise audiences, so teams solve problems well and thoroughly.
During the Discovery phase, design teams define their audiences
through the problem-framing process. In the Design phase, teams
may need to redefine their audience to a more precise scope, as the
team ideates product, service, and system solutions based on the
opportunities they identified in the Synthesis portion of Discovery.
This means acknowledging a diverse audience set, but designing for
a precise group within that audience so that the product, service, or
system solution functions well and, ideally, will clear the path for
other design solutions to be made for the adjacent audience groups.

are vital to the medical centers as a dataset,
but those numbers, configured in various
ways, return different results according to the
audience’s values, assumptions and biases.
For example, administrators use PATS to track
performance; medical professionals use PATS to
gather insights into how veterans and caregivers perceive their care, and Patient Advocates
themselves, who are charged with keeping all
the numbers on the reactions of veterans to
their care. Given this diverse group, should the
software attempt to answer all their questions
and needs, or should it focus on working best
for one set of participants? And, if for one set,
whose values should be most supported in a

For this reason, the software interface The Lab
designed focuses on the needs of the Patient
Advocates in their daily work: a large, open
text box for notes; search by name and last
four digits of social security numbers, and
the ability to have multiple cases open at the
same time. While the system will still allow
healthcare providers to access complaints
and compliments and be part of the process,
and it will still allow administrators to pull
performance numbers, it answers the needs
of the audience that interacts with it most
often - the Patient Advocates. Because of this,
the design team chose the Patient Advocates as

redesign?

the primary design audience for this work. The

In preparing for just such a redesign, the

they need from the system, but the system is

Veterans Experience Office and The Lab part-

designed primarily around Patient Advocates’

nered to parse the data and define the audience.

needs, as the primary participants in it. In

While part of the redesign effort was supposed

this way, the PATS redesign is an example of

to include an expansion of the resolution

supporting multiple participants, but highly

process to the different medical departments,

defining one’s primary audience.

also known as Service Lines, within a VA

system would allow other audiences to get what

Human Centered Design: Discovery Stage Field Guide

Design for Change

Case In Point

The Design phase requires much energy and effort

their needs.

in order to reach the goal of usable products,

Good ideas, based in strong research, however,

In 2017, the Veterans Experience Office

have a long shelf life. Better than trying to execute

undertook a focused project in rural, upstate

on all the ideas your team has come up with, focus

New York to try to understand and address the

in on the one that you can do well and thoroughly,

issue of suicide among rural veterans. A team

and wait for the right opportunity to execute on one

of four VEO people and a Lab team member

or some of the others. Note all your design ideas in

worked for months to connect with private and

your project documentation, outlining their con-

VA healthcare providers and Veteran Service

nection to your research. If possible, share them

Organizations in addition to local, county, and

with other teams who might be able to design for

state organizations in order to understand

them. But avoid taking on the development of more

the nature of veteran suicide in the area and

than one design idea at a time. Your project has a

what was being done to prevent it. In August of

greater potential for success if you allow the team

2017, the team presented its findings to both

to focus on developing designs for a single idea.

the VA’s Office of Suicide Prevention as well as

services, and systems. It sometimes seems as
though teams must make all the right decisions or
get everything perfect before launch is possible.
It’s important to remember that no design is
permanent; everything will need to change, will
have to flex, and will ultimately be succeeded by
something that is hopefully more useful and more
delightful than the thing originally designed. To
prepare for this and to build in space for flexibility
and change, many design teams work as though
they are always in an interactive loop: constantly
designing, testing, delivering, and measuring
designs they know aren’t perfect but are getting

Veteran Suicide Prevention

to leaders in the Veterans Integrated Service

closer and closer to a perceived ideal. This state can

Once the initial design phase is complete, the team

last months or even years, and setting up designs

can always go back to the additional ideas. If the

to undergo it is an important part of the design

research was done thoroughly and with excellent

phase process.

documentation, those ideas will almost certainly

The team provided multiple design ideas that

still be pertinent. You might even be able to update

could be pursued to forward the work already

them, given the work you have done in your first

being done in VISN 2 and to scale the best

design phase. And in the meantime, circumstances

practices from the area to other rural areas

might have developed that create opportunities for

experiencing similar veteran suicide crises. The

design ideas that might have previously not been

solutions were divided into two groups, Imme-

feasible to now be more realistic. In this way, for

diately Actionables and Need More Research,

the good of your design phase, focus on the design

to give VEO leadership an idea of how the team

ideas you can most reasonably execute immedi-

might proceed immediately and in the medium

ately, never leaving behind your other ideas, but

term. Disappointingly, the team did not get the

putting them on the back burner until you either

go-ahead to pursue their Immediately Action-

have time, resources, or a better opportunity to

ables, and the design phase seemed to whither.

address them.

In the face of the VEO reorganization, the team

8. Wait for the Right Opportunity
As was said before, the design phase is about making decisions. Almost always you will find yourself
having to leave behind what you and the team are
certain are desirable, feasible design ideas in order
to pursue one of those ideas that is more desireable or feasible. This can feel difficult. You might
even feel as if you are not fulfilling the needs of
your participants, and therefore not fulfilling your
project mandate, because you are not meeting all

Network (VISN) 2, which covers New York and
New Jersey.

was broken up into different areas of specialty,
and the discovery research seemed destined to
gather dust.

The research, however, was rigorous and sound.
A calendar year later, the Centers for Disease
Control (CDC) approached The Lab with an
audacious idea: apply Human-Centered Design
to the problem of suicide among veterans who
do not access Veterans Health Admininstration
(VHA) healthcare. Suddenly, the research from
that New York State project had new life. It
became part of the literature review for the
CDC’s project. The Immediately Actionables
shed light on the needs of healthcare providers
in rural areas specifically, while the Needs More
Research ideas fed into the direction of the CDC
Discovery Phase.
Although not a perfect one-to-one use of the
New York State project’s findings, the CDC
project built upon the previous work in a
meaningful way. Currently, the CDC project is
itself entering the design phase, and, with one
design solution already funded, the team has
hopes for the funding of others. So, although
a Design Phase opportunity for the New York
State research did not present itself, because it
was rigorously done and well articulated, it was
immediately useful when opportunities for its
use arose in another forum.

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

9. Designs Have a Life Cycle
Creating new work and sharing it with the world is exciting (and
frightening); that is doubtless. Through the long, hard Discovery
Phase, through all the meetings where the team had to “sell” their
vision, through all the emails flying back and forth between the
Design and Implementation teams, a lot of work goes into realizing a
new product, service, or system. There is a pride, a irrecoverable cost,
and an emotional association inherent to a designed thing, but that
doesn’t mean the thing has to continue to be owned or exercised by
the original team or department that created it.
Products, services, and systems have life cycles, both natural and
imposed, usually relative to the amount of time that it takes to build
a thing. This idea might feel odd or painful. After all, why go through
all the work getting your work into the world if you’re already thinking
of how it might exit it? We are not taught how to do this; as organizations, we largely do not talk about letting go or taking apart. Instead,
when designed products, systems, or services become dysfunctional,
we often blame the people who administer them, or we argue that the
dysfunction is simply how things are. However, these are not usually
accurate reasons; they are ways to avoid the potential pain of change.
Humans fight change; it feels dangerous. Not changing, however,
holds us back. For this reason, rather than fight natural life cycles,
organizations should strive to acknowledge them and move with them.

Case In Point
Consumer Financial Protection Agency: Policy
Sunsets
As a new agency, the Consumer Financial

design ideas would necessarily take root, and, in

Protection Agency (CFPB, established 2011) took

response, built in an automatic means by which

on the massive task of regulating various types

to set those policies aside.

of financial entities in the United States. As they
scaled quickly, the leadership of CFPB’s Human
Capital (Human Resources) office understood
that, in the rush of bringing on personnel to
address such a broad mission, human capital
policies ran the risk of being put into place but
never implemented. This might not be because
the policies themselves were not good ideas,
but, instead, because their intended purpose
could have been either subsumed by another,
adjacent policy, because the policy did not, in
fact, mesh with related policies, or because
supportive policies were not pursued.

This is clear thinking, although it might seem
a bit sad. However, if a solution does not take
root, becomes outdated, or is superceded by another solution, that doesn’t mean that the effort
going into creating that solution was necessarily
wasted. Rather, it means that something has
been learned about why things change, about
what might cause an idea to not take root, about
how and when ideas become outdated, as well
as about the natural progression and nature of
change, and when and how to allow one idea to
supercede another. Instead of keeping design
solutions around indefinitely, a better practice

For this reason, the Human Capital leadership

is to build in an automatic cycle of re-evaluation

instituted a “sunset” rule: any policy that had

for them, so they can be updated if they can

not been implemented within two years of its

and need to be, or they can be sunset, with the

articulation would be sunset, or dropped, from

reasons why they no longer function becoming

the agency’s policy books. The assumption was

part of the knowledge base for new designs.

that any policy that had not gained traction
in that time was clearly pretty unnecessary to
some people. In this way, CFPB’s Human Capital
office understood that not all their policy

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

Discovery Stage Research Cycle / Before / Recruitment

Designed Things
REFERENCES

Purpose
It’s easy to believe that the thing a design team makes is, in fact, the

National Archives on Services
“One way to think of [products and services] is from the clients’ point of view.
When a client asks “what can you make
for me?” they are asking about products;
when a client asks “what can you do for
me?” they are asking about services.
While a product is something that can be
measured and counted, a service is less
concrete and is the result of the application of skills and expertise towards an
identified need.”
- National Archives

Products

“design”. However, the thing that the team makes is simply a physical
expression of the nuanced, well-informed, and carefully constructed

Products are defined by economists as made, or

More broadly than the National Archives’ definition

design ideas that the team has formed through the process of Dis-

manufactured, objects, typically created in a factory

highlighted in the previous section, economists as

covery and Design. In other words, it’s exciting to create new things

setting. They tend to be single-instance interac-

a group define products quite literally as something

from the research you have enacted, and to test that thing with

tions between buyer and seller. If you go to a coffee

you “can drop on your foot”
, and they’re not joking.

participants, and launch it into the world, but that thing must adhere

shop and buy a coffee every day, each purchase of

This definition, while appropriate, does not address

to needs found in Discovery and be constrained by the Opportunities

that coffee is a new event; the coffee is the product,

some of the most important current products we

found during Synthesis.

and the product is new every time you buy it.

interact with every day: digital products.

Whatever the Opportunities your team identified, in the public sector,
you will most likely design a product, service, system, or a pantheon
of those items. This product, service, or system is the expression of
your design ideas. Drawing from your design ideas, defining what the
item you will design, or what items to design in what order, is a crucial
decision. To help you parse your options, this section provides a broad
outline of the ways in which products, services, and systems differ.
It also highlights a few of the points at which products and services
specifically are dependent upon each other and where and how the two
might intertwine.
As you read through this section, consider your Opportunities through
the lens of product versus service versus system. Do some of them
definitely speak to being expressed as one of these designed things?

P
Sun

P
Mon

Might some of their possible designed outcomes be a combination? Is
it still unclear for some?

Tue

Wed

Thu
P

Fri

Sat

Sun
P

Human Centered Design: Discovery Stage Field Guide

Products-Service Spectrum

Products & Services Work Together

Like the coffee and coffee shop example above,

In order to be able to determine whether a product,

many products and services coexist and serve each

service, or a combination of the two might be

other as different parts of systems. Before further

necessary for the project at hand, it’s important to

exploring the relationship between these two

be able to recognize and categorize some of these

concepts, we can further break products into two

interactions. In parsing different product—service

broad categories: tangible or traditional products,

interactions in the public sector, the authors of this

and digital products.

Guide have come up with three categories: products

interfaces: without the interface, the video streaming service might exist, but no one would be able to
access it. A good public sector example is New York
City’s 311 service, which exists as a call center that
routes calls as well as a mobile app. Without the
product of the phone line or the app, New York City
might offer services for non-emergencies, but New
Yorkers would not be able to access them.

that set constraints around categories, products
Tangible Products
Tangible products are the traditional playing field
of design and are what most people think of when
they think of design in general. Tangible products
require manufacturing in some way, and can be
used in three dimensional space. In the private
sector, they include daily items like phones or
bottles, while in the public sector they can be items
like driver’s licenses and passports.

Digital Products

that give access to services, and products that
of them with private and public sector examples

more parts of life are carried out on computerized

below.

use everyday like word processing programs, photo
sharing applications, or database applications like
your contacts lists. Government examples include
the digital filing system from the US Patent Office,
the USAJobs website, and the Library of Congress’
digital archives.

augment services. Find a brief description of each

Digital product design has emerged as more and
platforms. Digital products include items you may

Products that set constraints around services
Products like these are used to box in a service so
that consumers can use it in pieces or at certain
scales. In the private sector, they include items
like insurance, which box in insurance services
to include a certain package of services on offer
at a certain price point. In the public sector, they
include things like drivers’ licenses classifications.
The service of licensing drivers is the umbrella
offering; the classifications allow people to use that
service at different levels. For example, CDL drivers
are the licensed to pilot a vehicles over a certain
number of axles or a certain weight, while a class C
license limits the driver to smaller vehicles.
P

Products that augment a service
Products that augment a service are not necessarily
needed to constrain or access the service, but they
do make using the service more delightful or easy.
A private sector example is a to-go coffee cup:
while coffee can always be served in multiple-use
cups, to-go cups, whether multiple or single use,
create a different way to use a coffee service. A
public sector example includes the Welcome Kit
from the Department of Veterans Affairs, mentioned in the Principles of Team section previously.
While the Welcome Kit is not strictly necessary
for accessing all of VA’s services and benefits, it
certainly makes those services and benefits easier,
more delightful, and is shaping up to show higher
rates of navigation success for veterans entering
the VA system.

Products that give access to services
Products like these are necessary to access services.
Private sector examples include video streaming

Discovery Stage Research Cycle / Before / Plan

Human Centered Design: Discovery Stage Field Guide

Services
According to economists, services are items that
are not manufactured and are typically delivered
on-demand. They tend to be ongoing, or things you
return to again and again, unlike the single-instance events that characterize products.
The touchpoints of the transaction, the culture and
community of the coffee shop, are components of
the shop’s service, which is ongoing and intangible.

Case Study: Human-Centered
Design Capacity Building
Going back to our coffee shop example, while the
coffee you drink is a new product every day, the

While the public sector provides many pub-

Management Agenda (PMA), Cross-Agency Priority

coffee shop provides the ongoing service of stock-

lic-facing services, it also provides services to

(CAP) Goal of Improving Customer Experience

ing, making, and selling coffee.

itself in many forms. One of those forms is that of

with Federal Services. This program is designed to

education and capacity building for the workforce.

increase VEO’s capacity to provide HCD support to

An example of this type of service is The Lab at

VA and provide a framework for other Agencies to

OPM and the Veterans Experience Office’s (VEO’s)

use as well.

As readers of this Guide probably already know, the
public sector is, in fact, primarily a service provider. The services of governance, civil and criminal
protections, environmental and food safety regulations, and so many others, are the primary reasons
for the public sector's existence.

Human-Centered Design (HCD) Capacity Building
program, established in 2018.

In this way, the HCD Capacity Building program

This program was a match between The Lab’s mis-

provides to another agency (VA). The exchange is

sion to provide education and training to all levels

comprised of knowledge and practice, and return

of government as well as private sector profession-

on investment is long-term and strategic. Its

als and VEO’s increasing need for human-centered

evolution is ongoing, as there is no one-stop-shop

design capabilities.

for learning a complex practice like design. In order

Since its establishment in 2015, VEO has relied
almost exclusively on a combination of designs
from The Lab at OPM and HCD contract resources to
source expertise in applying HCD to solve complex
problems. As the designated CX organization in VA,
VEO seeks to increase its HCD capacity through this
program to deepen VEO’s understanding of Veteran
needs and develop innovative tools and solutions
to meet those needs. This program also an opportunity for VEO and The Lab at OPM to build an HCD
capacity building program that could be leveraged
by other Agencies in support of the President’s

is an example of a service that one agency (OPM)

to support the participants’ development, however,
The Lab has articulated a path to “launch”
, ie,
welcome into the public sector design community,
that includes a variety of formal, class-based
requirements as well as project-based evaluations.

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

USING DIAGRAMS
Diagrams like this one are a common application of drawing and visual communication in organizations. They can be used
to give form to systems, and that can be
useful. Because systems typically don’t
have physical, tangible forms, such as
this Hiring Paths process or the organizational chart of an office, they can be
hard to understand holistically, which in
turn limits designers’ ability to intervene
at the most effective places.
In addition to allowing teams to understand the system in order to intervene
in it, diagrams, like references, also
help teams get feedback on proposed
changes to the system in a concise yet
multi-layered way. Diagrams can show
loops, forks, simultaneous actions,
divergences, convergences, and
dependencies so that stakeholders can
understand their position in the system,
and design teams can identify how and
where to best intervene with new or
improved products and / or supporting
systems.

Systems
Economists divide economies into the two previous categories of
activity: manufacturing products, and executing services. This parsing

Discovery Stage Research Cycle / Before / Plan

Case Study: Systems in
Government
USAJOBS Mission Critical Hiring Paths Diagram

it might be reconstructed. They recognized that

Teams rebuilding the outdated USAJobs site studied

the hiring system drives every aspect of the sites’

the interactions of USAJobs.gov product and the

functionality, no matter which group a participant

system of hiring closely. Instead of simply over-

or stakeholder might come from. In this way, the

As was said at the introduction to this section, the public sector is pri-

hauling the site from technical, administrative,

effort to improve the USAJobs site became an effort

marily a service provider. Those services are upheld, augmented, and

public-, or organizational- facing perspectives, the

to improve hiring itself, thusly demonstrating the

accessed through products. But, especially internally, the public sector

design team brought all these groups to the table

utility of finding and working from the root cause

also launches and maintains systems that, while not exactly services

during the design process. Each group has a unique

of an issue, instead of solving for discreet, surface

themselves, are also not exactly products. Systems differ from ser-

value and requirements set for the functioning

issues. A simple glance can show a reader that the

vices in that they, too, uphold services, or even launch the products,

of the site, and, in organizing that functionality,

system of hiring is complex and involves multiple

but they are neither. One example of this is the hiring system through

those values and needs must be balanced. For

groups and stakeholders. In building this diagram,

which the public can enter the government workforce. The website

example, if the designers prioritize technology

the USA Jobs team created an illustration of the

USAJobs.gov is a product that creates access to the hiring system. The

needs, they might ignore the needs of the people

hiring path components: people, stages, and touch-

action of hiring itself is a service, while the process of getting hired

who process the information coming in. If they

points. Through this diagram, the team was able to

is, in fact a system supporting that service. In this way, the hiring

prioritize administrators’ needs, they might not

not come up with a single solution for hiring, but

managers, people who write position descriptions, review resumes,

reflect the needs of the public. Even though each

instead to explore the system, for that exploration

conduct background checks, et cetera, are parts of the hiring system,

of these groups is working towards the same goal,

to result in understanding it, to clarify nuances in

which, as a whole is the service to the American public of hiring.

the successful functioning of the USAJobs site, the

the system to viewers, and to communicate ideas

definition of success differs slightly across each

for the systems’ many possible throughlines and

group.

values in a concise and yet thorough manner. This

is not quite precise enough for the challenges of design, however.
In the design process, we have a third possible category of designed
thing: systems.

For this reason, throughout their project’s development, the designers mapped how the system
of hiring worked, where it bogged down, and how

understanding then informed the development of
the USAJobs site product in terms of the various
stakeholders’ positions and needs in the system.

Consent form

Pens/Pencils

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

Discovery Stage Research Cycle / Before / Plan

Communicating Ideas Through Design

PURPOSE
The Design phase is all about creation.
To aid idea expression and development,
designers use non-verbal and non-textbased communication to show their
ideas and thoughts in addition to talking
and/or writing about them. We use these
because it can be difficult to express
the fullness of ideas verbally or in text,
especially collaboratively, when the idea
is still emerging, vague, or unfinished.
That being said, alternatives to verbal
and text-based communication channels, like drawing, collaging, or model-making, aren’t better than verbal- and
text-based communications; they’re all
different from one another and can be
used in unison.
Each communication method answers a
specific set of needs, according to the
strength of that method. If talking about
the changes you’re thinking of making
to an existing system is confusing, why
not draw it? If you can’t really describe
a better visual-impairment melody for a
system to play when people log in, why
not hum two or three options, record it
on your phone, and email that instead?
You might feel silly at the time you’re
making the drawing or recordings, but
your team will understand what you’re
thinking faster, and you’ll be able to more
forward on the project rapidly. In this
way, drawing, building, collaging, and/or
recording our ideas is faster, more clear,
and more actionable than just talking or
writing about them.

Envisioning Ideas
Communicating Abstract Concepts

Using References: Communicating Happiness
In this example, a team member would like to
describe a product or service that should have a

When design teams need to talk about abstract concepts or convey a

happy, sunny feeling. To do this, the team member

feeling, they often use any of those alternate forms of communication

has collected images to help them communicate

to do so. These photos, drawings, recordings, et cetera, are called

what they mean when they talk about a happy,

“references” because you should “reference” them when reading the

sunny feeling. As you can see, none of the images

text or listening to the presentation that accompanies them. They

in this section are actually images of “happy”.

function the same way that metaphors and similes do in written and

One is a line drawing of two people talking to each

verbal language. Instead of saying “happy” and expecting everyone

other with stars around them. One is a logo that

to know what we mean, we often say things like “happy, like a sunny

uses a sun-like form that seems like it might be

day”. In design, we bring our metaphors into visual, audio, and tactile

quite happy and optimistic. The third is actually

forms so that we can communicate meaning, form, and emotion all in

the words “I’m walking on sunshine”
, but in a font

one place.

that looks happy and fat, sort of like it’s written

Using References is Just Show And Tell
In grade school, many students in the United States play an in-classroom game called “Show and Tell”. In this exercise, students bring in
an object they think is interesting, show it to the class, and then tell
the class a story for which that object is starting point or an integral
part.
One of the purposes of this exercise is to teach students about how
tangible objects can represent abstract concepts or events that have
already occurred. For example, although a student cannot bring to
class the hike in the woods they took over the weekend, they can
bring the cool rock they picked up on that hike as a representation
of what they did. By connecting the tangible rocks with the intangible
hike, students are able to make generalizable connections about the
elements of a hike, where to find rocks, and what future hikes or rocks
might be like.
As adults, images and objects function in the same way: an object
or visualization allows us to give shapes to ideas. From that starting
point, we can then talk about a desired experience, substance, process,
etc. that cannot be present. For this reason, the old game of show and
tell as useful in meetings as it was in your grade school’s class.

in toothpaste. And the fourth is a photo of a beach
on a sunny day, which many people associate with
happiness.
So none of these images are actually images
of happiness, and none of them is particularly
sophisticated. In fact, they look homemade or
pulled off the internet. And that’s part of the point:
references shouldn’t be polished; they’re a quick
way to communicate your thoughts, not your final
presentation. But what is a picture of happiness,
and how could your final idea be just “happiness”?
First, there isn’t one picture of happiness, because
it’s different for all of us, and secondly, this is not
the time to have a final idea; you’re still envisioning and communicating your first draft ideas. This
is why using references is so useful when talking
about abstract concepts like happiness and when
working at the early stages of your design phase.

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

REFERENCES

The Lab Education Courses
Visual Eloquence
Visual Communications
https://lab.opm.gov/class-sign-up/
To read more about the interaction of
words and pictures, please see Scott
Mccloud’s excellent graphic work.

Building Out Ideas
Using Collections of References for Ideation

Discovery Stage Research Cycle / Before / Plan

Exploring Happiness
Returning to the references for “happiness”
, as seen
in the Envisioning Design section, how might they
each inform an overall idea of a product or service?

As design teams begin to ideate, they start to create collections of
references, often called Reference Decks, to help show their ideas. By
accompanying these collections of references with words, whether
written or verbal, the team can more easily understand what it collectively is thinking or what an individual teammate is thinking, keep a
record of that thinking, and edit the idea.

Scott Mccloud

Because design teams evolve or create new products, services, or

“Understanding Comics”
http://scottmccloud.com/2-print/1-uc/

systems, there’s no exact photo or sketch or recording of it that exists.
For this reason, it’s essential to develop a collection of references that
are like the product, service, or system you’re envisioning in order to
express all your thoughts on how a design might look, feel, and func-

IMPORTANT TO NOTE
Understand that different cultures
assign different meanings to shapes,
colors, gestural forms, and groupings,
the same way different parts of the
US assign different meanings to words
(try ordering a pop in a restaurant in the
South. No one will know what you’re
talking about.) For this reason, if the design work is to be shared across languages or cultures, some research is required
to ensure that the work retains the
intended impact across all audiences.

tion. The purpose of using references, whether drawn, photographed,

This line drawing shows two people talking. They

The flag in this graphic seems to indicate that the

recorded, et cetera, is to meet four primary goals:

seem to be facing each other, and their little,

product, service, or system will be related to the

line-drawing eyes communicate pleasure. This

United States of America, while the graphic sun

seems to indicate that the idea of happiness in

conveys optimism and hope. This item also intro-

this product, service, or system has to do with

duces the ideas that the expression of happiness in

human connection and communication as a form or

this product, service, or system is modern, clean,

components of happiness.

and minimal.

This bouncy text not only communicates the idea of

The image of the beach conveys ideas of happiness

movement and joy, but also, like the logo, informs

associated with being outside in the natural world,

the form of the idea through the use of a distinct

serenity, and peace.

•

To explore nuances in a proposal, system, or idea.

•

To understand those nuances.

•

To clarify those nuances, especially if they act within a complex
system.

•

To communicate the steps above to others who may or may not be
present in design meetings.

When to Use References
Design team members can use references to aid in communication
with their teammates at any point in the design process. However,
since references inform the direction of an idea’s designed form, and
not the details of that form itself, they are most frequently used early
in the process of making a prototype design solution. If the team
finds itself still leaning on references as they approach a low-fidelity
prototype that’s testable in the field, that can be a marker of a team
that is not coalescing around a design direction, and thusly the team
needs to back up and start the design process from the idea again.
Specific practice on the form and cadence of using references will be
provided in the upcoming Design Phase Operations Guide.

typeface.

Discovery Stage Research Cycle / Before / Plan

Human Centered Design: Discovery Stage Field Guide

Conclusions

Example Reference Deck

If these four images were a teammate’s reference

Telehealth Toolkit

deck, what might be a few ideas to take from it?
One might be that the product, service, or system
that the teammate envisions has to do with happiness as a social connection, away from work, in
a light-hearted environment such as community
engagement or outdoor exercise opportunities for
veterans or school children. Because this is only
an example, one might take away many ideas from
it. For a more precise understanding of the idea,

The Telehealth Toolkit is a prototype knowledge-sharing repository designed for the Office of
Telehealth in the Veterans Health Administration.
This reference deck uses examples from several
well-known, well-organized sites that share
knowledge in different ways. Multiple ideas for the
Toolkit are described by the aspects of each site
that is highlighted.

the reference deck would need to be built out more

This deck is from the very beginning of the design

fully, preferably accompanied by verbal or written

team’s design phase for this digital product. At the

cues as well.

beginning of the design process, the deck refers
to the product as the “Genius Bar”; however, the
final name is the Telehealth Toolkit. This change is
typical of reference decks. Because they’re begun
so early in the design process, they’re often called
by different names from the final name iteration,
since the information and references that decks
contain are simply the starting point for the
iterated design process.
One of the members of the design team made this
deck so that they could communicate their ideas for
the toolkit (or Genius Bar) to other team members.
Making this deck has nothing to do with a knowledge of user experience coding or layouts; it has to
do with understanding the synthesis of research
that the team had performed during the Discovery
Phase. The design team member searched the
internet for examples of what they thought should
be built to solve for the participants' needs, then
compiled those examples into this deck.

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

Iteration
Everyone Iterates

Discovery Stage Research Cycle / Before / Plan

Turning Insights & Opportunities
into Design Iterations
Designs must emerge from Discovery. Below is the
process diagram from the HCD Discovery Phase

Phase, pieces that, through ideation and iteration,

Iteration refers to making a series of design versions. This is a classic

Guides and the Designed Things section of this

design practice; its purpose is to push designers past the first expres-

Guide. Here, the diagram is further developed by

sion of ideas in order to build them out, identify their advantages and

the use of puzzles called tangrams to show how

Coming up with only one design option will almost

drawbacks, and revise ideas before prototyping begins.

each opportunity can be developed into multiple

never produce the best solution. That’s akin to

iterations.

walking into a supermarket and buying the first

become a new product, service, or system.

apple you see because it’s an apple and you need
an apple. You don’t do that. You examine several
apples, considering their size, sweetness, and
defects in the light of what you need before making
the final decision. It is the same with design
solutions. You work with many possible solutions to
arrive at a selection that is best suited to the needs
of your participants.
All your iterations are related to each other, but
none is identical. Instead, they build on one another, just as all tangrams are built from the same

Most people, in any profession, iterate constantly: they just define the
iterations they’re making in terms of their immediate outputs, wheth-

The tangrams in the Fields of Opportunity are

er those are emails or processes or methods, instead of their strategic

stand-ins for an iterative design process. Why tan-

goals. In design iteration, teams use iterations as a way to approach

grams? Because a tangram puzzle is a useful way to

the strategic goals of the project as well as fulfill the immediate goals

talk about the cycle of ideation and iteration during

of it.

the design phase. Every tangram is comprised of

seven shapes into an infinite variety of finished
creations.
Additionally, like the constraining rules of the
tangram puzzle game—only the seven tans, no
alterations, and no overlaps—there are many times

the same seven shapes, called tans.

your solutions will need to address or operate

emails. Any email that requires a bit of thought, whether it’s for work

To solve a tangram puzzle, a player looks at an

like time, costs, and climate.

or a personal matter, requires iteration. When we write thoughtful

outline of a tangram shape and re-creates the

emails, we think about what to say. We try out wording, delete words,

shape using all seven tans, with no alterations

and move things around until we think we have expressed in the best

and no overlaps permitted. (Find out more about

way what we want to say. Then we send it. All those different email

the history of tangram puzzles.) Each different

versions were iterations of the email. They weren’t the email’s final

tangram is representative of a new iteration

form; they weren’t even the second or the third. They were how ever

within a field of opportunity cone. And, like design

many versions that had to be made in order to reach a version that

iterations, each tangram takes on similar, though

seemed to be the most clear, best way to say what needed to be said.

not identical, shapes. Similarly, the design team is

To understand iteration at the immediate, daily level, think about

putting together pieces identified in the Discovery

inside some strict constraints dictated by factors

In your work, the team has a need to create
something new based on research, insights, and
opportunities identified in the Discovery Phase.
Sometimes, this process can seem daunting or even
pointless, but, as in the Synthesis portion of the
Discovery phrase, you will find that the more you
and your team work with the ideas for design, the
more possibilities you will see.

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

Feedback
Your work Only Gets Better

Discovery Stage Research Cycle / Before / Plan

Feedback and Revision
Process Map

Strategies for Feedback

This Feedback and Revision Process is a basic

to collect feedback logically and methodically. The

framework for how to seek out and integrate feed-

Feedback is an integral part of the design process and should be

back into a product or service you have designed.

sought out when designing anything, be it product, service, or system.

Before jumping into the feedback loops, the team

In design, feedback is a multi-step phase during which the design

needs to review the primary Design Phase Princi-

gradually reaches farther and farther outward from the core team in

ples as well as the principles you developed during

order to gather feedback from an increasingly large pool of feedback

Problem Framing. After an intense iteration phase,

providers.

in which the team gets deeply involved in details, a
refocus onto the participants and the strategic level

Creating a strategy for feedback allows the team
team should test with people who are all current
participants or future participants in the product,
service, or system that is being created, but those
particpants can and should be from different areas
of the design object's use. For example, if you test
with a front-line participant at one stage of testing,
you should try to balance that by testing with a
leadership level participant at another. Of course,

goals of the project will prove useful.

it's not always possible to perfectly construct feed-

ideas might hold up best in real-world conditions and which ones

There are two parts to the feedback process:

is not to create an impossible goal of perfection for

resonate most with participants. Feedback also allows the team to

(1) Finding out the people to talk to

testing, but to give guiderails on the best way the

It’s preferable to gather feedback on several of the team’s design iterations. Through feedback, the team is able to understand which design

improve and refine the design iterations, using the feedback reviews
to gradually phase out the design iterations that are less successful
while refining and focusing the more successful ones.

(2) Making changes to your design based on their
feedback.

back testing rounds; the purpose of this guidance

team can go about this process.
If testing narrows in on a single participant group
for reasons of access or timeline, that's okay, but it

In this section, see the cycle of feedback and revision for a single

will result a not-as-thoroughly testing prototype.

design solution. Two steps make up a feedback phase: (1) receiving the

For this reason, the designed product, service, or

feedback from an individual or group and (2) making revisions to the

system's potential for success is lessened. While

product, service, or system based on that feedback. In each feedback

this is sometimes acceptable, it is not desirable.

step, the circle of people the team reaches out to for feedback moves

Work with your leadership to find a way to either

farther away from the core team and farther into the field of potential

extend your team's timeline or to gain access to the

participants.

participants you need.

These feedback sessions can take the form of codesign workshops,
prototype testing, or other formats depending on the product, service,
or system being tested. Guidance on different feedback formats will
appear in the Design Phase Operations Guide. For the second step,
design revision, the team revises the design internally in order to
integrate the feedback from the people that have been asked. Revision
activities generally take the shape of tiny synthesis sessions; you will
find guidance on those in the Operation Guide as well.

Human Centered Design: Discovery Stage Field Guide

Discovery Stage Research Cycle / Before / Plan

Who to Talk To: An Expanding
Galaxy
In testing rounds, the design team needs to
get feedback from people who have increasing
amounts of distance from the project. This is for
two reasons:
1.

Starting with participants previously involved
in or aware of the project allows the team to
test low fidelity prototypes with people who
have context on the project itself. This will
provide actionable feedback to increase the
refinement of that prototype quickly.

Moving outward to people who have no relationship to or awareness of the project includes
the perspective of absolutely new participants.
This allows the design team to learn about
and correct for the issues new users will have
without having to find out those issues during
a pilot.
This group will also encounter a closer-to-launch-fidelty prototype, which prepares
them for interacting with the new product,
service, or system during the pilot phase.

Note: All participants outlined below should be
current or future users of the product, service, or
system that the team is currently designing. The
differences between these people are their close-

Round 1

Round 2

An ideal person for round 1 feedback is someone

A good type of person for round 2 feedback is

who has previously been involved in the project and

someone who is close to but not directly involved in

is familiar with the research or design of phases

the research or design of it. This can be the team-

of it. This can be one of your primarily research or

mate of one of the Round 1 feedback people who

design partners.

you simply haven't talked to directly before.

Round 3

Round 4

It's useful for round 3 feedback to talk to someone

A strong candidate for round 4 feedback is a person

who is aware of the project, but not previously

who has not previously been in touch with the

involved in the research or design. This can be an-

team or the other participants about this project at

other teammate of people in Rounds 1 or 2 but, for

all. This person's fresh eyes will help head off any

whatever reasons, has been somewhat distanced

quirks or stumbling blocks that, due to familiarity,

from the project development.

the previous testers might have taken for granted.

ness to the research and design process of the new
product, system, or service.

Human Centered Design: Discovery Stage Field Guide

What to Do with Feedback:
Make Changes!
Each time the team gathers feedback on the
designed product, service, or system, document,
meet, and discuss that feedback. Think of this
process as a smaller, more concentrated version of
the Problem Framing process the team underwent
during the early parts of your Discovery Phase.
In that process, as new information about the
large problem frame was uncovered through desk
research and the identification of constraints, the
team narrowed in on the specific problem frame in
which you were going to operate. Similarly, in this
process, as the team tests with participants, you
will make changes to your prototype to narrow in
on a more useful and resonant product, service, or
system for your participants.
You'll work with the resources you have, within the
constraints of the product, service, or system you
first designed based on your research, to better fit
the needs of the ultimate participants in your work.
This means tweaks, not systematic changes.

If, at this point, you find the need for large scale,
thematic or systematic changes, it means the
design that you’ve forwarded does not accurately
reflect the opportunities identified in the Discovery
phase, so the team will need to start again on the

Bringing It All Together
Through the feedback cycle, the team will talk
design process. This outcome is not failure; indeed,

to a variety of people to gather feedback on the

it simply means you know more about what your

product, service, or system the team is designing.

participants need. And, if you’ve designed in quick,

Those people will have different positions to and

fast iterations, you’ll easily be able to go back and

awarenesses of the project and its history. As you

change your direction without adding a great deal

gather feedback from these people, the team will

of cost or time to your project.

make changes to its design in response to that

Below, find another visualization of making small
changes based on feedback. As you can see, the
tangram shape stays roughly the same shape
through all the revisions. They all, vaguely, look
like a person standing up in different poses. Those
different poses are created by moving around
some of the pieces that make up the puzzle. These
changes are analogous to the changes the design
team should be making in the feedback cycle: ones
that change details to the overall design, but not
the core idea of the design itself.

input. If the feedback points the team to an entirely
different design, that’s okay, but the team must
throw out its design and start the design process
itself again. In this case, the team might want to
review their Opportunities from their Discovery
Phase and identify a new direction in which to go
for their new design.

A Note on Using Feedback:
It is important to know that not every piece of
feedback from each participant can should be
integrated. Be aware of the primary principles of
the design phase (and review them if you need
to) as well as the principles from your problem
framing phase.
If your design resonates deeply, people will be
excited about its potential, have great ideas for
improvements, and really want to see those
improvements. Ensure that you compare those
suggestions to your original project scope and
technical ability. If you cannot integrate an
improvement into this stage, that’s okay. Communicate to the participant that their feedback is
well-placed and important, and that you will note it
for integration into a future version or as an idea for
a related product or service.

Human Centered Design: Discovery Stage Field Guide

Design & Implementation
No “hand offs”; no “waterfall”
When the web was young, the “waterfall” process

This, however, is impossible. Even in a completely

team is developing print media, a digital product

of development organically developed as a way

controlled environment where there will never

like a website, a real-life object like a kiosk, or a

content-makers and designers could push content

be any changes or revision to content, each group

service like a benefits advisory board, working with

to the engineering teams to be put up on the web.

doesn’t know every constraint and need of next

the people who will implement is crucial to the

The waterfall process of content development is

group, so they will of course sometimes produce

success of your project. No matter how clear you

linear: one team completes their tasks and passes

work that causes problems or questions for future

think you’ve been, no matter how top-notch your

to another team who completes their tasks and

groups in the process.

implementation team is, there will be questions

then pushes to another team, and so on, until the

that you need to work out together.

final product is realized.

Plus, that perfect environment is a fantasy; it does
not exist. Changes and revisions happen all the

The Design & Implementation phase is analogous

Broadly, this process was an adaptation of the

time. In newspapers, this meant that if something

to the Communications phase from the HCD

traditional, factory-like print media workflow from

happened to change the headlines in the early

Discovery Process: until the Discovery Team

newspapers and magazines. In this process, the

morning edition, Editorial would rush to write new

effectively communicated their findings to their

Editorial team would write and edit text content,

headlines and article text; Design would freak out

leadership and partners, the Discovery stage could

push it to a Design team to lay the text out on a

a little to source a photo and set the text, and the

not be considered complete. Until the Design team

page and work in the illustrations and photographs,

Printers would have to scramble to reframe the

has effectively worked with the Implementation

and then the Design team would push the layouts

entire front page to include this new article. But

team to create final testing through a small pilot

to the Printers, who would implement the design by

what happens to the original content? Where does

and to help that team create an implementation

setting the printing presses to churn out the final

it go? The Printers need to know, and they also have

plan, their Design work is not done, because the

product.

ideas — after all, they understand the mechanics of

team has not set the design(s) they crafted up for

the page better than anyone. They need to be able

success: the designs have simply been carefully,

to talk to Design and Editorial quickly in order to

painstakingly crafted and then shoved out into the

make content decisions. The three groups abso-

world without support or thought of sustainability.

That was the ideal. In reality, however, these
three groups almost always work together in a
less-than-linear, collaborative workflow. This
was because the rigid nature of the ideal process
assumes that no group will ever have questions
for the previous or following groups. This assumes

lutely had to work together to get changes made in
a way that worked for the newspapers’ readers. And
they had to do it fast.

So never plan to just “handoff” your design work
and roll off a project; stay in it through the first
pilot and help you implementation team develop

that each group understands all the needs and

So, in traditional print media, the groups had to

and test a implementation strategy. Only then

constraints of the other groups in the process and

overlapping work; they had to talk to each other.

will you have set your carefully designed solution

will not produce something that is impossible or

This is the same in the current design process.

up for success.

difficult or even creates questions in a future stage

Design teams can’t just “hand off” designs to the

of the product development.

people who will implemenent them. Whether your

Human-Centered Design: Design Phase Concept Guide

Discovery Stage Research Cycle / After / Next

What’s Next
Deliver Phase

Thank You!

You’ve drawn on your Discovery phase work and created prototypes

Contact Information

from it. You’ve tested those prototypes with participants. You’ve kept

Please send questions or comments.

your leadership informed. You’ve worked with the implementation

GSA Customer Experience: customerexperience@GSA.gov

team to make sure the work will see lift-off.

The Lab at OPM: LAB@opm.gov

The team is set up for success. Next, with the Implementation team,
move into the Deliver Phase and see your work enter the world at

Thanks and Acknowledgment

scale!

Numerous people, across agencies, contributed to this guide. We are grateful to
all of them.
Veterans Experience Office at VA
GSA Office of Customer Experience
The Lab at OPM
We would also like acknowledge other leaders in the field of Human-Centered
Design which inspired and informed this guide: The VA Innovators Network,
18F, USDS (United States Digital Service), Deloitte & Doblin, Helsinki Design Lab,
Luma Institute, Ideo and Ideo.org, Frog Design, IBM Design, and The d.School at
Stanford University.

Appendix / Glossary

Human Centered Design: Discovery Stage Field Guide

Glossary
3 Es
Effectiveness, Ease, and Emotion are the 3 core qualities that VE
measures across the enterprise. These are based on a Forrester
Research Inc. pyramid model of customer experience.

5 Whys, aka, Laddering
A method by which an interviewer derives additional detail and
undercurrents from an interviewee. Typically characterized by the
interviewer asking “why” in regards to a qualified or abstract word or
phrase used during the an answer to questions. A common metric is
for the interviewer to do this five times in a line of question.

Accessibility
The extent to which content is available, understandable, and
usable by all audiences, regardless of sensory, physical, cognitive,
intellectual, or situational disabilities or impairments.

Best Practice
Procedures or approaches that are accepted or prescribed as being
correct or most effective.

Clustering
A research analysis method characterized by the grouping of words
or phrases that have a single or set of commonalities. In Design
Research, this is often enacted physically by the assembly of words
or phrases written on single pieces of paper into a, proximate group.

Concept/Context mapping
An ethnographic research technique, concept/context mapping is
a process that tries to understand the environment in which the
behavior under study takes place.

Ethnographic research
Ethnographic research tries to understand how people live their
lives. Unlike traditional research, who ask specific, highly practical
questions, ethnographers may visit homes or offices to observe
and listen in a non-directed way. While this observational method
may appear inefficient, it enlightens us about the context in which
customers see their own environment.

‘Fail early, fail fast, fail small’
A Design Research principle expressing the ethos that, through
quickly making and testing small, unsuccessful solutions to big
problems in quick succession, drawing lessons in terms of what
works and does not work from those tests and revising the next
solution accordingly, more effective and successful end solutions
can be reached than if a single large solution was launched once and
without testing.

Front Stage / Back Stage
Parts of services that are visible to the service user are called front
stage. Part of services not visible to the service user but are interacted with by the service provider are called back stage.

Guided Tour
A research methodology during which a participant shows researcher(s) their physical space, collections, or other assets so that
the researcher(s) understand the participant’s context and reality
through the participant’s point of view.

How Might We Question
A “How Might We” (HMW) question serves two purposes. First, it
is the frame of inquiry, or the area of research. And second, a HMW
question should spur and inspire the research team. A good HMW
research question will focus but also leave room for exploration.

Innovation
A new idea, method, or device. In Design Thinking, usually characterized by a break from traditional or institutionalized methods,
production methods, or products .

Intercepts
Intercepts (intercept interviews) are conducted on site with Veterans while they are interacting with services at the research site.

Internal bias
A universal situation in which humans feel or show inclination or
prejudice for or against someone or something. In Design Thinking,
the inherency of internal bias is accepted, and we correct for these
biases is through awareness and acknowledgment of them.

LEAN (process)
An approach that focuses on people, process and purpose and the
alignment between the three.

‘No wrong ideas’
In Design Thinking, the principle that, in order to forward innovative
thinking, the group or individual performing the thinking session
must accept and consider all ideas as possible solutions.

Pain Points
In experience design, pain points are real or perceived problems
experienced by customers within a system.

Problem frames
The area of research in regards to a particular problem.

Customer Experience (CX)
Customer experience (CX) is the product of an interaction between
an organization and a customer. This interaction includes a customer’s attraction, awareness, discovery, cultivation, advocacy and
purchase and use of a service. It is measured by the individual’s
experience against the individual’s expectations.

Decode

Human-Centered Design
Human-centered design (HCD) is a design and management framework that develops solutions to problems by involving the human
perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process. Human
involvement typically takes place in observing the problem within
context, brainstorming, conceptualizing, developing, and implementing the solution.

Ideate

To understand. To analyze in order to find meaning.

Empathy
The action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and
vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of
another through a shared experience.

Qualitative research
Primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain an understanding of
underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights
into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research.

ROI
Acronym for: Return on Investment.

To form an idea of; imagine or conceive. In Design Thinking, this
refers to imagining or conceiving of multiple ideas for solutions to
problems, usually in succession and building off each idea.

Root cause
The fundamental reason for the occurrence of a problem.

Shadowing
A research methodology during which the researcher follows the
participant through the participant’s activities. These activities
show the researcher the participant’s physical context as well as
their interaction within that context.

Sensemaking
To make sense of; to understand.

Snapshots
A representative sample of research. In design-oriented presentations, this refers to a collection of photographs, quotations,
and synthesized research that is formatted to tell the story of the
research endeavor.

Stakeholders
Persons, groups or organizations that have direct or indirect stake in
an organization because it can affect or be affected by the organization’s actions, objectives and policies.

Sympathy
The action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and
vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience
of thorough emotional and intellectual understanding of another’s
experience. Contrasts with empathy in that it does not include a
shared experience.

Synthesis/synthesizing
To combine (a number of things) into a coherent whole. In Design Thinking, this refers to the collection and integration of the
substance of the research instances into a logical and meaningful
collection.

Touchpoints
Any point of contact between a customer and a service or service
provider. This could be the design of a receipt, the comfort of a
waiting room or the usability of a web page.

Yes, And
In Design Thinking, the logical opposition to the statement, “No,
But...” Meant to set up acceptance and integration, this form of reply
to statements can allow for expansive conversation instead of a
negation of opinions and options.

Human-Centered Design: Discovery Stage Field Guide

Notes

Unique ID:
Photocopy this
Consent Form for

Project:

use in the field.

Quotes, Photography and Video Consent Form

Thank you for your willingness to participate in this research study.
Use of Quotes
When we write reports or presentations on what we learn from the interviews, we sometimes use specific
quotes from study participants. Quotes bring to life what we learn and are an important part of sharing
your experience with others. If you give us permission to use your quotes, we will not include your name
or a photograph of your face next to the quote. This protects your identity and makes the quote
anonymous. If you approve of your quotes being used in future publications or presentations of our work,
please include your name and signature in the section below.

Name ____________________________________________________

Signature _________________________________________________

Date _____________________________________________________

Photography and Video
The project team may take pictures or video during the interview. Photographs and Videos bring to life
what we learn and are an important part of sharing your experience with others. If you give us permission
to use photographs or videos of you, we will not include your name or a quote as part of the photograph
or video description. This protects your identity. If you approve of photographs or video being used in
future publications or presentations of our work, please include your name and signature in the section
below.

Name ____________________________________________________

Signature _________________________________________________

Date _____________________________________________________

Please keep a copy of this document in case you want to read it again.

Human-Centered Design: Discovery Stage Field Guide

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