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196 lessons
Designer
Build the foundations of research, craft, accessibility and delivery.
Understand people8 lessons
- ObStart
Observation
Watching people do a real task, in the place and way they normally do it.
Learn Watch what people do, not what they say they do.
Use it when people describe a task one way, but the results suggest they do it differently.
Five-step lesson - IvStart
Interviewing
Talking one to one with people to understand what they did, and why.
Learn Ask about a specific past time, not what people usually do.
Use it when you need to know why people do what they do, not just what they do.
Five-step lesson - CxStart
Context of Use
Mapping what must be true in a person’s day and surroundings for a task to work.
Learn Every task depends on conditions outside your product.
Use it when a task works in testing but fails in people’s real days.
Five-step lesson - ErStart
Evidence Review
Checking what is already known about a question, and how strong that evidence is.
Learn Trace each claim to its source. Count sources, not citations.
Use it when a claim gets repeated so often that nobody checks where it came from.
Five-step lesson - RxStart
Reflexivity
Noticing how your role, hopes and background shape what you see and report.
Learn What you hope to find shapes what you notice.
Use it when you’re studying something you designed, chose or want to succeed.
Five-step lesson - SyStart
Synthesis
Turning many research notes into a few clear explanations of what people need.
Learn Group observations by the need behind them, not surface details.
Use it when you have pages of notes and no clear picture of what they mean.
Five-step lesson - MmStart
Mental Models
The explanation people carry in their heads of how something works.
Learn People act on how they think it works, not how it works.
Use it when people expect a different result from the one they get.
Five-step lesson - TaStart
Task Analysis
Breaking a task into its steps, decisions and conditions, to see the work it really takes.
Learn Simple-looking steps often hide decisions. Find them before designing.
Use it when a workflow looks simple on paper, but people struggle or invent workarounds.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Find the real problem · 2–4 weeks
Human factors: fit the task to the person · about 45 minutes of reading
Frame the problem6 lessons
- PfStart
Problem Framing
Finding the problem behind a request before you commit to a solution.
Learn A request is one answer. Find the problem behind it.
Use it when you’re handed a solution, like a feature or a redesign, and asked to build it.
Five-step lesson - OdStart
Outcome Definition
Describing the change for people that would count as success, before deciding what to build.
Learn An outcome is a change for people, not a feature shipped.
Use it when success is defined as shipping something rather than as a change for people.
Five-step lesson - AmStart
Assumption Mapping
Listing the beliefs a plan depends on, then sorting them by importance and evidence.
Learn Test first the belief that matters most and is least known.
Use it when a plan feels certain but rests on beliefs nobody has tested.
Five-step lesson - CnStart
Constraint Mapping
Listing a project’s limits and checking which are real and which were simply inherited.
Learn Ask who set each limit and why before designing around it.
Use it when the team keeps saying “we can’t”, and nobody remembers why.
Five-step lesson - PrStart
Prioritization
Choosing what gets attention now and what must wait or stop.
Learn A priority is real only when something else stops.
Use it when you need to choose which tasks or projects come first within a fixed amount of time.
Five-step lesson - CmStart
Concept Modeling
Drawing an idea as its parts and the links between them, so its logic can be checked.
Learn Draw the idea as parts and links. Gaps appear as missing links.
Use it when people agree on an idea but describe how it works differently.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Find the real problem · 2–4 weeks
Prototyping: test a new direction · about 30 minutes of reading
Explore options7 lessons
- IdStart
Ideation
Generating many different ways to solve a problem before choosing one.
Learn Vary how ideas work, not how they look.
Use it when you need several different ways to solve a problem before choosing a concept.
Five-step lesson - AnStart
Analogy
Borrowing how something works in another field to solve your problem.
Learn Borrow how something works, not how it looks.
Use it when your own field has run out of ideas and you need a useful mechanism from another field.
Five-step lesson - CoStart
Co-creation
Shaping ideas together with the people a decision affects.
Learn Invite people to shape the parts of a decision that are open.
Use it when the people affected know things you don’t, and parts of the decision are still open.
Five-step lesson - ScStart
Scenario Building
Testing an idea against the different situations people might be in, not just the ideal one.
Learn Test ideas against changing situations, not one ideal case.
Use it when a design works in the demo, and you need to know where it breaks.
Five-step lesson - PtStart
Prototyping
Making a rough version of an idea to learn something before you commit to building it.
Learn Build the cheapest thing that answers your question.
Use it when you’re about to build something and still have an open question about it.
Five-step lesson - SdStart
Storyboarding
Drawing an experience as a sequence of scenes, from the person’s point of view.
Learn Draw the experience as moments in order. Gaps show between frames.
Use it when an idea is hard to explain with screens alone, or needs to be seen in context.
Five-step lesson - D&Start
Divergent & Convergent Thinking
Two modes of thinking: widening the options, then narrowing them with clear reasons.
Learn Widen your options first, then narrow them. Don’t do both at once.
Use it when a group adds and rejects ideas at the same time, or chooses before exploring.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Test a new direction · 2–4 weeks
Prototyping: test a new direction · about 30 minutes of reading
Interaction foundations7 lessons
- IxStart
Interaction Design
Designing what people see before, during and after each action they take.
Learn Show what will happen, that it’s happening, and what happened.
Use it when you are designing a whole action, from what someone sees before it to what they can do after it.
Five-step lesson - AfStart
Affordances & Signifiers
What an object lets people do, and the cues that show them how to do it.
Learn Make a control’s shape show what it does.
Use it when people miss an action that’s available, or try one that isn’t there.
Five-step lesson - LdStart
Cognitive Load
The mental effort a task takes, and reducing the effort that doesn’t help people’s goal.
Learn Don’t make people work out what you could just tell them.
Use it when a simple task feels exhausting, or people must compare or remember too much at once.
Five-step lesson - RcStart
Recognition Support
Keeping options and information visible, so people don’t have to remember them.
Learn Show options instead of making people remember them.
Use it when people must remember codes, earlier details, or where they left off.
Five-step lesson - FbStart
Feedback Design
Showing people what happened after an action, right away and in words they understand.
Learn Every action needs a response people can see right away.
Use it when an action already works, but its response is missing, late or too brief for people to notice.
Five-step lesson - FmStart
Form Design
Designing forms so each question is needed, clear and easy to answer.
Learn Ask only what you need, in words people can answer.
Use it when people abandon a form, leave answers blank, or call to ask what a question means.
Five-step lesson - ReStart
Error Recovery
Helping people notice and fix a mistake without losing their work or starting over.
Learn When something goes wrong, keep people’s work and show the fix.
Use it when a mistake or failure erases people’s work, or they can’t tell how to fix it.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Fix a confusing form · 2–4 weeks
Human factors: fit the task to the person · about 45 minutes of reading
Visual foundations7 lessons
- VhStart
Visual Hierarchy
Using size, weight, contrast and position to show what matters most.
Learn Make the most important thing the most visible.
Use it when people miss the most important thing, or a page feels cluttered.
Five-step lesson - TyStart
Typography
Choosing and setting type so text is easy to read and its structure is clear.
Learn Readable text needs the right line length and line spacing.
Use it when text is hard to read, or styles look inconsistent from page to page.
Five-step lesson - GrStart
Grid Systems
A shared structure of columns, margins and spacing that keeps layouts consistent.
Learn Use a grid for consistency, and let content span it when needed.
Use it when layouts lack alignment, or every page uses different spacing.
Five-step lesson - CrStart
Color Systems
Giving colors consistent roles across a product, so each color means one thing.
Learn Give each color one meaning, and never rely on color alone.
Use it when the same color means different things, or brand colors fail contrast checks.
Five-step lesson - IcStart
Iconography
A consistent set of icons that people can recognize without guessing.
Learn If people must guess what an icon means, add a label.
Use it when people misread icons, or icons look inconsistent across screens.
Five-step lesson - RlStart
Responsive Layout
Adapting a layout to different screen sizes and zoom levels, using real content.
Learn As space shrinks, keep what matters visible and usable.
Use it when a design breaks on small screens, or zoom and long text hide important controls.
Five-step lesson - PgStart
Perceptual Grouping
How people see things as related based on closeness, similarity and shared borders.
Learn Things close together look like they belong together.
Use it when labels seem attached to the wrong things, or related information feels scattered.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Find the real problem · 2–4 weeks
Typography: compose readable pages · about 45 minutes of reading
Information and content7 lessons
- IaStart
Information Architecture
Organizing and naming information so people can find and understand it.
Learn Organize by how people look for things, not by your org chart.
Use it when people can’t find things, or the structure follows your company’s departments.
Five-step lesson - CdStart
Content Design
Writing the words in an experience so people can understand them and act.
Learn Give people what they need to act, where they need it.
Use it when people misread instructions, or messages don’t say what to do next.
Five-step lesson - PlStart
Plain Language
Writing so the intended reader can find, understand and act on information the first time.
Learn Use your readers’ words. Keep the facts they need.
Use it when people misread instructions, or specialist words block a common task.
Five-step lesson - NvStart
Navigation Design
Designing how people move through a place or product, know where they are and get back.
Learn People need to know where they are, and how to get back.
Use it when people get lost or can’t get back, or menus grow with every new feature.
Five-step lesson - CsStart
Card Sorting
Asking people to group and name topics, to learn how they think about them.
Learn Let people group and name things before you design the menu.
Use it when your categories follow internal teams, and you don’t know how people group things.
Five-step lesson - TtStart
Tree Testing
Testing whether people can find things using only a menu’s words, before any visual design.
Learn Test the menu’s words alone. Wrong first clicks show bad labels.
Use it when people pick the wrong category, or you need to test labels before building pages.
Five-step lesson - CuStart
Content Audit
Reviewing all existing content to decide what to keep, fix, merge or remove.
Learn Keep content only if someone needs it and someone owns it.
Use it when content is duplicated, out of date or unowned, or a redesign needs a starting inventory.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Make navigation findable · 2–4 weeks
Information: make a structure people can find their way through · about 45 minutes of reading
Inclusive foundations8 lessons
- AcStart
Accessibility
Designing so people with disabilities can perceive, understand and use the experience.
Learn Give more than one way to perceive and operate everything.
Use it when an experience works only for people who see, hear, move or think in one way.
Five-step lesson - KnStart
Keyboard Navigation
Making every action work with a keyboard alone, in a logical order.
Learn Everything you can click must work with a keyboard, in order.
Use it when people can’t operate a control with keys, or the Tab key jumps around the page.
Five-step lesson - FoStart
Focus Management
Controlling where keyboard focus goes after something changes on screen.
Learn After anything changes, put focus where people will continue.
Use it when focus disappears after a dialog closes, or lands somewhere unexpected.
Five-step lesson - SsStart
Semantic Structure
Marking headings, lists and regions in the code, so assistive tools can read the structure.
Learn Headings and lists must exist in the code, not just look right.
Use it when screen reader users can’t find sections, or a visual heading isn’t marked as one.
Five-step lesson - NaStart
Accessible Naming
Giving every control a name that says what it does and matches what people see.
Learn Every control needs a name that says what it does.
Use it when a screen reader announces just “button” or “link”, or voice commands don’t match labels.
Five-step lesson - AuStart
Accessible Authentication
Designing sign-in and account recovery that don’t depend on memory, copying or puzzles.
Learn Don’t make signing in a memory or copying test.
Use it when people get locked out, can’t paste a code, or face a puzzle to sign in.
Five-step lesson - CgStart
Cognitive Accessibility
Designing for people’s different needs for understanding, memory and attention.
Learn Don’t make tasks depend on memory, speed or jargon.
Use it when a simple-looking task stumps some people, or your research leaves out cognitive disabilities.
Five-step lesson - MaStart
Multimodal Alternatives
Offering important information and controls through more than one sense or method.
Learn Send important information through more than one sense.
Use it when information is only in sound or only in color, or an action works only one way.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Fix a confusing form · 2–4 weeks
Leadership: give a creative team ownership · about 45 minutes of reading
Test and deliver8 lessons
- UtStart
Usability Testing
Watching people try real tasks with your design, without help, to find what gets in their way.
Learn Watch people use it without help. Their struggles are the findings.
Use it when you need to know whether people can actually use what you’ve designed.
Five-step lesson - CtStart
Concept Testing
Showing people an early idea to learn whether and where it fits their lives.
Learn Test where an idea fits people’s lives, not whether they like it.
Use it when you have an idea and need to know if it’s worth building, before designing details.
Five-step lesson - DcStart
Design Critique
Reviewing a design against its goal, so the designer knows what to change and why.
Learn Judge a design against its goal, not your taste.
Use it when reviews turn into opinions, or the feedback is too vague to use.
Five-step lesson - DsStart
Design Specification
Describing a design precisely enough that others can build it as intended.
Learn Specify every state, not only the ideal one.
Use it when designs are handed off showing only the ideal case.
Five-step lesson - IpStart
Implementation Partnership
Working closely with engineers to make design and technical choices together.
Learn Hold firm on the outcome and stay flexible on the solution.
Use it when a design is too costly to build, or designers and engineers disagree.
Five-step lesson - QrStart
Quality Review
Checking the built product the way people will actually use it, before release.
Learn Check the built product the way people will use it.
Use it when a design was approved, and the built version is about to reach people.
Five-step lesson - ClStart
Continuous Learning
Continuing to learn from a product after release, and acting on what you learn.
Learn After release, let what you learn change your next step.
Use it when a product has launched, and the team moved on without checking what happened.
Five-step lesson - SrStart
Screen Reader Evaluation
Using a screen reader to check whether people can complete a whole task by listening.
Learn Automated checks can pass while the task still fails. Listen to it.
Use it when automated checks pass, but people who use screen readers still get stuck.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Repair a frustrating journey · 2–4 weeks
Leadership: support a growing design team · about 30 minutes of reading
Senior practitioner
Work with complex systems, evidence and emerging technologies.
Research in depth8 lessons
- RsStart
Research Planning
Planning which questions to study, and how, based on the decisions they inform.
Learn Study only what could change a decision.
Use it when a decision is coming, and the team has many questions but no plan for them.
Five-step lesson - PaStart
Participant Recruitment
Finding research participants whose situations can actually answer your question.
Learn Recruit the people whose situation could change your conclusion.
Use it when research keeps hearing from the same kind of people, or key groups are missing.
Five-step lesson - IoStart
Informed Consent
Making sure people understand what taking part involves, and can freely say no, now or later.
Learn Consent counts only if people understand it and can easily say no.
Use it when research records people, collects personal stories, or involves people who may feel they can’t refuse.
Five-step lesson - DaStart
Diary Studies
Asking people to record their experiences over days or weeks, close to when they happen.
Learn Some experiences only show up over days, not in one session.
Use it when an experience unfolds over days, and interviews miss what happens in between.
Five-step lesson - SvStart
Survey Design
Writing survey questions that measure what you intend, and reading answers within the sample’s limits.
Learn The wording of a question can create its answer.
Use it when you need answers from many people, and the wording could sway them.
Five-step lesson - QcStart
Qualitative Coding
Tagging research notes and quotes with themes, so patterns can be found and checked.
Learn Every theme should trace back to what people actually said.
Use it when research material is too scattered to compare, or themes can’t be traced to evidence.
Five-step lesson - PnStart
Research Personas
Profiles of distinct user groups, based on research into their goals and behavior.
Learn Base personas on differences in behavior that change the design.
Use it when teams describe users by age or stereotype, or can’t agree who they’re designing for.
Five-step lesson - JmStart
Journey Mapping
Mapping a person’s experience over time, across every place and team they deal with.
Learn Map the whole journey. Problems hide where teams hand off.
Use it when an experience crosses teams or companies, and each one sees only its own part.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Plan a trustworthy research round · 2–4 weeks
Research: plan and make sense of a round · about 45 minutes of reading
Evidence and experiments8 lessons
- ExStart
Experiment Design
Planning a fair comparison to find out whether a change caused a result.
Learn To know a change worked, compare with people who didn’t get it.
Use it when you have a proposed change and need a fair comparison to find out whether it causes a result.
Five-step lesson - MeStart
Measurement
Choosing what to count so you can see whether things are getting better for people.
Learn Choose measures that are hard to improve unless people are better off, and pair each with a check.
Use it when the team reports numbers, but nobody knows whether people are better off.
Five-step lesson - RaStart
Research Triangulation
Checking a claim against different sources and methods before trusting it.
Learn When sources disagree, the disagreement is a finding.
Use it when sources seem to disagree, or an important claim rests on one method.
Five-step lesson - EcStart
Evidence Confidence
Matching how strongly you state a claim to how strong the evidence is.
Learn Make claims only as strong as the evidence allows.
Use it when you need to judge how strongly a study or report supports a claim before using it in a decision.
Five-step lesson - EaStart
Exploratory Data Analysis
Looking at data from many angles to find patterns before settling on an explanation.
Learn Look at how the data is spread before trusting an average.
Use it when you have data, and you’re tempted to trust an average or the first explanation.
Five-step lesson - HyStart
Hypothesis-led Problem Solving
Stating your best explanation early, then testing it against evidence that could prove it wrong.
Learn State your best explanation and the result that would prove it wrong.
Use it when you have competing explanations for a problem and need to decide what evidence would rule one out.
Five-step lesson - PhStart
Plan–Do–Check–Act
A four-step cycle for improving something: plan a change, try it small, check the result, then act.
Learn Predict, try small, compare with the prediction, then adjust.
Use it when you are improving a working process through repeated small trials, using each result to choose the next adjustment.
Five-step lesson - HeStart
Heuristic Evaluation
Inspecting a design against a set of usability principles to find likely problems.
Learn Name the problem and the principle it breaks.
Use it when you need a quick usability check before testing, or reviews are too vague to use.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Solve a recurring problem · 2–4 weeks
Problem solving: break down a hard question · about 45 minutes of reading
Interaction behavior8 lessons
- AtStart
Attention Management
Deciding when and how a product interrupts people, so attention goes to what matters.
Learn Interrupt only when it matters more than what people are doing.
Use it when alerts interrupt important work, or people ignore alerts because there are too many.
Five-step lesson - PdStart
Progressive Disclosure
Showing what most people need first, and keeping advanced options one step away.
Learn Show what most people need; keep the rest one step away.
Use it when rare options crowd a common task, or details hide the main decision.
Five-step lesson - StStart
State Modeling
Listing every condition something can be in, and the events that move it between them.
Learn List every state a thing can be in, and what changes it.
Use it when a design shows only the success path, or a product shows states that contradict each other.
Five-step lesson - MoStart
Motion Design
Using movement to show what changed and where things went, with restraint.
Learn Use motion to explain a change, briefly, or not at all.
Use it when changes on screen are hard to follow, or animations slow people down.
Five-step lesson - TcStart
Transition Choreography
Coordinating several moving parts in one transition, so people can follow what happened.
Learn When several things move, move them in an order people can follow.
Use it when several things change at once, and people lose track of what moved where.
Five-step lesson - ItStart
Interaction Prototyping
Building a working version of an interaction to test how it behaves, not just how it looks.
Learn Make the behavior you’re testing real; fake everything else.
Use it when a click-through demo hides behavior you need to test, like typing, dragging or timing.
Five-step lesson - SnStart
Situation Awareness
Helping people understand what’s happening now, what it means, and what comes next.
Learn Show what’s happening, why it matters, and what needs attention next.
Use it when people see lots of data but can’t tell what’s happening or what needs attention.
Five-step lesson - EmStart
Emotional Design
Designing for how an experience makes people feel: their confidence, trust and stress.
Learn Design for how people feel in the moment, not only the task.
Use it when an experience works but feels cold, stressful or intimidating at an important moment.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Find the real problem · 2–4 weeks
Emotion: give an experience a fitting personality · about 45 minutes of reading
Physical interaction6 lessons
- IeStart
Input Ergonomics
Making controls easy to hit and use, given real hands, devices and situations.
Learn Make targets big and far apart enough for real hands.
Use it when people tap the wrong control, or an action needs more precision than they have.
Five-step lesson - PeStart
Physical Ergonomics
Fitting products and spaces to people’s bodies: their reach, strength, posture and movement.
Learn Design for the smallest and largest people, not the average.
Use it when a design assumes everyone can reach, see or handle the same things.
Five-step lesson - WlStart
Workload Assessment
Measuring the effort a task demands of people over time, not just its speed.
Learn A faster task can still take more effort. Measure the effort too.
Use it when people finish tasks quickly but feel exhausted, or a faster workflow may be harder to sustain.
Five-step lesson - RiStart
Robot Intent Legibility
Making a robot’s goal clear to people early, through how it moves and signals.
Learn A robot should move so people can tell its goal early.
Use it when people share space with a robot and need to predict where it’s going.
Five-step lesson - RhStart
Robot Handoffs
Coordinating how an object passes between a person and a robot, so neither side drops it.
Learn In a handoff, both sides must know who is holding it.
Use it when a robot and a person pass an object, and it’s unclear who’s holding it.
Five-step lesson - SxStart
Spatial Interaction
Designing where people and systems are placed, and how they move, in a shared space.
Learn Place things where they help people move and gather.
Use it when people share a space with machines or screens, and position affects whether it works.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Find the real problem · 2–4 weeks
Robotics: make movement and handoffs legible · about 45 minutes of reading
Information models6 lessons
- TxStart
Taxonomy Design
A consistent set of categories, and rules for filing and tagging things in them.
Learn Categories work only if two people would file things alike.
Use it when things are tagged inconsistently, or new topics don’t fit the categories.
Five-step lesson - SeStart
Search Design
Designing search so it understands people’s words and leads them to useful results.
Learn Search must understand people’s words and never leave them stuck.
Use it when search returns irrelevant results, or people hit “no results” and give up.
Five-step lesson - CeStart
Content Modeling
Defining reusable types of content, their parts, and how they connect.
Learn Define content by what it is, not where it appears.
Use it when the same information is rewritten in many places, and the copies drift apart.
Five-step lesson - LoStart
Localization
Adapting a product to another language and region, including formats, length and reading direction.
Learn Translation isn’t enough. Check length, formats and direction.
Use it when a product is entering another language or region, or a translated version feels wrong.
Five-step lesson - DvStart
Data Visualization
Turning data into charts that make the important comparison easy and accurate.
Learn Choose the chart that makes your comparison easy and accurate.
Use it when a chart hides the answer, or people misread a trend or comparison.
Five-step lesson - TbStart
Data Table Design
Laying out tables so people can read, compare and act on rows of data.
Learn Align and label tables so people compare the right values.
Use it when people compare records in a table and misread values or lose their place.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Make navigation findable · 2–4 weeks
Information: make a structure people can find their way through · about 45 minutes of reading
Visual expression6 lessons
- ArStart
Art Direction
Setting the purpose and point of view for images, so visuals carry the message.
Learn Choose images that say the message before anyone reads.
Use it when images feel random, or a campaign needs a clear visual direction.
Five-step lesson - BpStart
Brand Personality
The consistent character of a brand, shown through its voice, visuals and behavior.
Learn A brand’s voice must hold up when things go wrong.
Use it when the product and the marketing feel like different companies, or the tone keeps changing.
Five-step lesson - XtStart
Expressive Typography
Using the shape, size and arrangement of letters to express an idea, not just say it.
Learn Let the type’s form show the meaning, not just the words.
Use it when a message needs a distinct visual voice, or type should carry meaning beyond the words.
Five-step lesson - VrStart
Visual Reference Building
Collecting visual examples and naming the specific quality to borrow from each one.
Learn Take one specific quality from a reference, not its whole look.
Use it when you have a visual brief and need to turn references into specific choices about space, hierarchy or rhythm.
Five-step lesson - OcStart
Output Curation
Selecting and editing many options into a set that works as a whole.
Learn Choose pieces that work together, not just the best single ones.
Use it when you have many strong pieces, but together they look inconsistent.
Five-step lesson - CcStart
Creative Coding
Writing code that produces visuals or behavior, and changing its rules to explore ideas.
Learn Change one rule at a time to see what each one does.
Use it when you are making a visual through code and need to understand how a rule changes its movement, variation or form.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Find the real problem · 2–4 weeks
Craft: build an expressive visual system · about 45 minutes of reading
Creative practice7 lessons
- FlStart
Idea Fluency
The habit of producing many ideas quickly before choosing one.
Learn Your first idea is rarely your best. Keep going past it.
Use it when the team keeps stopping at the first plausible answer.
Five-step lesson - AvStart
Attribute Variation
Creating new versions of an idea by changing one of its attributes at a time.
Learn Change one attribute at a time to find new versions.
Use it when you have an existing concept and want to explore how changing its user, timing, material or medium could improve it.
Five-step lesson - FrStart
Forced Connections
Combining your problem with an unrelated object or idea to spark new concepts.
Learn Borrow a feature from something unrelated, and make it work.
Use it when familiar references keep producing familiar ideas.
Five-step lesson - IbStart
Incubation
Working hard on a problem, stepping away, then returning to it with fresh eyes.
Learn Step away after real work, then return with fresh eyes.
Use it when you keep repeating the same approaches, or a hard question needs a fresh look later.
Five-step lesson - DnStart
Design Sprints
A fixed period, often five days, in which a team goes from a key question to a tested prototype.
Learn Spend a sprint on one question a prototype can answer.
Use it when an important question keeps getting debated, and the team needs evidence fast.
Five-step lesson - AbStart
Abductive Reasoning
Proposing a plausible way to produce the result you want, so it can be tested.
Learn Propose another way to get the result, and check it would work.
Use it when today’s solution is reaching its limits, and you need a different way to get the result.
Five-step lesson - TzStart
TRIZ Contradictions
A method for solving problems where improving one thing seems to make another worse.
Learn When two needs conflict, separate them in time, space or condition.
Use it when a trade-off seems unavoidable, and the team is about to settle for a compromise.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Turn ideas into evidence · 4–6 weeks
Ideas: change the parts and find new connections · about 45 minutes of reading
Human control of AI6 lessons
- AaStart
Automation Allocation
Deciding which parts of a job people do and which parts machines do.
Learn Automation moves work. Check what it leaves for people.
Use it when a team plans to automate a whole workflow, or automation created new supervision work.
Five-step lesson - UcStart
Uncertainty Communication
Showing how sure a prediction is, in a way that helps people decide what to do.
Learn Show uncertainty in a way that changes what people do.
Use it when a prediction looks more certain than it is, or people don’t know what a score means.
Five-step lesson - HoStart
Human Override
Giving people a clear, timely way to stop, change or reverse an automated action.
Learn People must be able to stop automation before it’s too late.
Use it when a person must pause, stop or reverse a specific automated action before it causes harm.
Five-step lesson - AoStart
AI Onboarding
Teaching people what an AI feature does well, where it fails and how to use it.
Learn Teach what the AI does well and where it fails, early.
Use it when people can’t find good uses for an AI feature, or expect too much after a demo.
Five-step lesson - AeStart
AI Failure Recovery
Helping people finish their task when an AI gives a wrong or useless result.
Learn When AI fails, help people finish the task another way.
Use it when an AI gives a plausible but wrong answer, or retrying just produces more of the same.
Five-step lesson - CvStart
Conversational Interaction
Designing the turns of a typed or spoken conversation, including how it recovers from mistakes.
Learn When a conversation goes wrong, repair it without starting over.
Use it when people use dialogue to get things done, and conversations lose track or leave people unsure.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Design an AI workflow people control · 2–4 weeks
AI: share work and keep useful control · about 45 minutes of reading
AI workflows and data6 lessons
- PmStart
Prompt Design
Writing instructions for an AI that state the task, context, limits and the result you want.
Learn Write down what the model can’t know: task, context, limits, format.
Use it when the AI’s output is inconsistent or unsuitable, or a repeated AI task needs a reliable specification.
Five-step lesson - AgStart
Agent Workflow Design
Designing how an AI agent plans, acts, checks its progress and hands work back to people.
Learn Agents must report what they did, what’s left, and who’s next.
Use it when an AI acts across tools or many steps, and people can’t tell what it has done.
Five-step lesson - AsStart
AI Co-design
Using AI as a creative partner to widen options, while people keep the direction.
Learn Use AI to widen your options; people decide what fits the intent.
Use it when you’re exploring ideas with generative AI, and its suggestions narrow or pull off course.
Five-step lesson - EvStart
AI Evaluation
Testing an AI’s behavior against clear expectations, across the cases it will really face.
Learn Test AI on the hard cases people will really bring.
Use it when an AI feature works in demos but varies in use, or a change needs comparing.
Five-step lesson - MtStart
Multimodal Interaction
Designing interactions that combine speech, touch, gesture or images into one clear exchange.
Learn When speech and pointing disagree, confirm instead of guessing.
Use it when people combine speech, touch or gestures, and the system must work out what they mean.
Five-step lesson - DtStart
Data Provenance
Recording where data came from and how it was changed, so others can trace and check it.
Learn Every number should trace back to where it came from.
Use it when nobody can tell where a number came from, or whether its source has changed.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Design an AI workflow people control · 2–4 weeks
AI: design and evaluate the whole workflow · about 45 minutes of reading
Reason through problems6 lessons
- SmStart
System Mapping
Drawing the causes and effects around a problem to find the loop that keeps it going.
Learn When a problem keeps coming back, look for the loop that recreates it.
Use it when you need a first map of the people, actions and links behind a problem that keeps returning.
Five-step lesson - CjStart
Causal Loop Modeling
Drawing how causes and effects feed back into each other, to see why problems grow or return.
Learn Check whether your response feeds the problem it responds to.
Use it when you already have a system map and need to trace how a response changes the problem over time.
Five-step lesson - IrStart
Issue Trees
Breaking a big question into smaller ones that don’t overlap and together cover everything.
Learn Split a question into branches that don’t overlap and miss nothing.
Use it when a problem is too big to tackle, or the team keeps talking past each other.
Five-step lesson - MnStart
Means–Ends Analysis
Comparing where you are with the goal, choosing a step that closes the gap, and when that step needs something first, making that the next goal.
Learn Work back from the goal to a step you can take today.
Use it when a goal feels far away, or the obvious first step depends on something not yet true.
Five-step lesson - DjStart
Design Judgment
Making a deliberate choice when evidence and criteria don’t settle it, and saying why.
Learn When evidence can’t decide, choose, and say what would change your mind.
Use it when several good options remain, and more evidence won’t arrive in time.
Five-step lesson - PbStart
Premortem
Imagining that a plan has already failed, then listing why, so you can prevent it.
Learn Imagine the plan failed and ask why. Fix those causes now.
Use it when a plan is about to start, and people seem confident or quiet about the risks.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Choose under uncertainty · 1–2 weeks
Problem solving: break down a hard question · about 45 minutes of reading
Find and prevent failures8 lessons
- FaStart
Failure Analysis
Studying how an experience can fail, who notices and how people recover.
Learn The worst failures are the ones nobody notices in time.
Use it when a service can fail silently and you need to decide who should notice, act and help the affected person recover.
Five-step lesson - FwStart
Five Whys
Asking “why” step by step, with evidence at each step, to trace a problem to its cause.
Learn Every “why” needs evidence. Stop at a cause you can fix.
Use it when one specific failure needs an evidence-backed chain of causes, starting from what happened.
Five-step lesson - FsStart
Fishbone Analysis
A diagram that sorts the possible causes of a problem into categories before you choose one.
Learn List causes in every category before you settle on one.
Use it when the causes are still uncertain and you need to widen the investigation across people, process, place and tools.
Five-step lesson - FtStart
Fault Tree Analysis
A diagram that traces which combinations of events could cause a failure.
Learn Know whether a failure needs both causes or just one.
Use it when a serious failure may need several events to happen together and you must check which safeguards prevent it.
Five-step lesson - CkStart
Counterfactual Reasoning
Asking whether a specific change would have altered an outcome, step by step.
Learn Ask which change would actually have altered the outcome.
Use it when you’re reviewing an incident and choosing which fix to make.
Five-step lesson - EdStart
Eight Disciplines
A structured process for a serious problem: contain it, find the cause, fix it and prevent it.
Learn First stop the harm, then find the cause, then prevent it returning.
Use it when a serious problem has reached customers and you need to coordinate containment, a confirmed fix and prevention.
Five-step lesson - PoStart
Pareto Analysis
Ranking the causes of a problem by how much each contributes, to find the few that matter most.
Learn A few causes make up most of the problem. Fix those first.
Use it when a problem has many causes, and every team wants its own fixed first.
Five-step lesson - ThStart
Theory of Constraints
Improving a whole process by finding and fixing its slowest step.
Learn The slowest step sets the pace. Fix it first.
Use it when work piles up somewhere, and speeding up other steps doesn’t help.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Solve a recurring problem · 2–4 weeks
Improvement: prevent recurring problems · about 45 minutes of reading
Systems and delivery7 lessons
- RpStart
Release Planning
Planning how a change reaches people in stages, with a way to learn and a way back.
Learn Release in stages, and decide in advance what makes you stop.
Use it when a change will reach many people at once, and you’re not sure how it will go.
Five-step lesson - OrStart
Operational Readiness
Preparing the people and systems that keep a service working after launch.
Learn Before launch, make sure someone can fix what the product can’t.
Use it when a launch is close, and nobody has planned what happens when things go wrong.
Five-step lesson - SbStart
Service Blueprinting
Mapping the work behind an experience, from what customers see to the staff and systems behind it.
Learn Every promise on screen needs someone behind it who can keep it.
Use it when the experience promises something, and you’re not sure the work behind it can deliver.
Five-step lesson - SoStart
Service Recovery
Fixing a service failure for the person, telling them it’s fixed, and preventing it happening again.
Learn Make it right, say it’s fixed, and stop it happening again.
Use it when a failure leaves people without a resolution, or support keeps handling the same problem.
Five-step lesson - ToStart
Design Tokens
Named, reusable values for design decisions like color, spacing and type, shared by design and code.
Learn Components should use tokens named for their purpose, which point to the palette values.
Use it when design values drift between tools and code, or themes need to change consistently.
Five-step lesson - DbStart
Design Debt
The build-up of design shortcuts and inconsistencies that keep costing people time or effort.
Learn Repair first the compromise that costs people the most, repeatedly.
Use it when shortcuts create recurring effort for users, or small changes have become expensive.
Five-step lesson - CfStart
Component Governance
Rules for adding, maintaining and retiring shared components, so teams can depend on them.
Learn Add to the shared library only what’s proven and owned.
Use it when a shared library fills with overlapping parts, or nobody knows which components to trust.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Repair a frustrating journey · 2–4 weeks
Design systems: maintain shared decisions · about 45 minutes of reading
Product opportunities6 lessons
- JtStart
Jobs to Be Done
Understanding the progress people want to make in a situation, which leads them to choose a product.
Learn People choose products to make progress in a situation.
Use it when customer segments explain little about choices, or needs are written as features.
Five-step lesson - OpStart
Opportunity Mapping
A tree that links an outcome to evidenced opportunities, then to solutions and tests.
Learn Link every solution to an evidenced opportunity and an outcome.
Use it when a roadmap jumps from goals straight to features.
Five-step lesson - VpStart
Value Proposition Design
Shaping an offer around what a specific audience is trying to do, and their biggest problems.
Learn An offer wins when it solves what its audience struggles with most.
Use it when you can describe features, but not why this audience would choose them.
Five-step lesson - DpStart
Design Principles
Short statements of shared intent that guide everyday design decisions.
Learn A useful principle changes a real decision. Test it on one.
Use it when a product team repeatedly faces the same trade-off and needs a rule for making that choice.
Five-step lesson - MvStart
Minimum Viable Product
The smallest real version of a product that can test the assumption a decision depends on.
Learn Build only what must be real for the test to teach you.
Use it when a team keeps adding scope before testing whether the core idea works.
Five-step lesson - BeStart
Business Model Experiments
Testing the assumptions about who pays, how people are reached and what delivery costs.
Learn Test first the business assumption most likely to break the offer.
Use it when people like a concept, but nobody knows whether it can pay for itself.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Turn ideas into evidence · 4–6 weeks
Discovery: understand the progress people seek · about 30 minutes of reading
Growth · Measure what matters7 lessons
G2 · Read data without losing its meaning
Try · See · Learn · Apply · Use
G3 · Define success before designing the test
Try · See · Learn · Apply · Use
G4 · Make the experience measurable
Try · See · Learn · Apply · Use
G7 · Understand retention through cohorts
Try · See · Learn · Apply · Use
G10 · Run an experiment people can trust
Try · See · Learn · Apply · Use
G11 · Interpret results and close the loop
Try · See · Learn · Apply · Use
G14 · Evaluate the whole AI experience
Try · See · Learn · Apply · Use
Growth · Build and learn7 lessons
G1 · Connect craft to a product outcome
Try · See · Learn · Apply · Use
G5 · Investigate behavior
Try · See · Learn · Apply · Use
G6 · Design activation and time to value
Try · See · Learn · Apply · Use
G8 · Connect acquisition, monetization and growth loops
Try · See · Learn · Apply · Use
G9 · Choose the right test
Try · See · Learn · Apply · Use
G12 · Work with product managers and engineers
Try · See · Learn · Apply · Use
G13 · Use AI to assist evidence work
Try · See · Learn · Apply · Use
Design leader
Grow people, run a healthy practice and coordinate decisions.
Grow people8 lessons
- ChStart
Coaching
Helping someone build their own judgment on a real problem, instead of giving them the answer.
Learn Ask what the work must achieve before giving your view.
Use it when people bring you decisions they could make themselves, or depend on you for answers.
Five-step lesson - DfStart
Developmental Feedback
Feedback that describes a specific behavior and its effect, so the person can improve it.
Learn Name what you saw and its effect, not the intent you assume.
Use it when feedback is vague, or a behavior is hurting the work or the team.
Five-step lesson - OoStart
One-to-Ones
A regular private meeting between a manager and a team member, for support, context and growth.
Learn Use one-to-ones for what has no other place, not status updates.
Use it when support only arrives in a crisis, or manager and team member lack context.
Five-step lesson - DgStart
Delegation
Handing over ownership of work, with clear authority to make its decisions, plus support.
Learn Delegate the decisions, not just the tasks.
Use it when everything waits for one person, or people keep asking permission.
Five-step lesson - SaStart
Stretch Assignments
Giving someone harder work than they’ve done before, with the support to learn from it.
Learn Stretch people with harder work, plus the support to succeed.
Use it when someone is ready for more, or wants to grow into a bigger role.
Five-step lesson - HiStart
Structured Hiring
Assessing candidates against the real work, with the same questions and scoring for everyone.
Learn Test the work the job needs, the same way for everyone.
Use it when you’re hiring, or interviewers use different standards.
Five-step lesson - CpStart
Career Pathways
Clear expectations for how people grow, including paths besides management.
Learn Make the paths clear, and let people try the work they want.
Use it when promotion expectations are unclear, or the only way up is to manage people.
Five-step lesson - SpStart
Sponsorship
Using your influence to put someone forward for opportunities they can’t reach on their own.
Learn Put people’s work forward in rooms they can’t enter yet.
Use it when good work stays invisible, or the same people get every opportunity.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Give a creative team ownership · 2–4 weeks
Leadership: support a growing design team · about 30 minutes of reading
Healthy teams8 lessons
- PsStart
Psychological Safety
A team climate where people can ask questions, raise concerns and admit mistakes without being humiliated.
Learn How you react to bad news decides whether you hear it again.
Use it when people hide mistakes, or nobody challenges a senior person.
Five-step lesson - PcStart
Productive Conflict
Turning a disagreement into clear differences in interests, so it can be resolved.
Learn Ask what each side is protecting, not just what it wants.
Use it when a disagreement keeps returning, or meetings are getting personal.
Five-step lesson - TrStart
Trust Repair
Rebuilding confidence after broken commitments, through specific promises and visible follow-through.
Learn Rebuild trust with small promises you keep where others can see.
Use it when people no longer rely on your commitments, or conversations about capacity feel hostile.
Five-step lesson - CyStart
Creative Stability
Making the working environment predictable enough that people can focus on difficult work.
Learn Make the things people keep guessing about explicit.
Use it when priorities keep changing, or people wait for permission before acting.
Five-step lesson - FpStart
Focus Protection
Protecting long stretches of uninterrupted time for work that needs deep attention.
Learn Hard work needs long, uninterrupted blocks. Protect them first.
Use it when there’s no time to think, or meetings break the day into pieces.
Five-step lesson - WaStart
Working Agreements
A small set of shared, revisable expectations about how people work together.
Learn Make expectations explicit, agree what is workable, and check it together.
Use it when expectations are unclear, or working remotely causes friction.
Five-step lesson - RtStart
Retrospectives
Regular meetings where a team reflects on how it worked and chooses what to change.
Learn End each retrospective with one change to try, and an owner.
Use it when the same process problem keeps returning, or a team needs to learn from a project.
Five-step lesson - OnStart
Designer Onboarding
Helping new people gain the context, relationships and first contribution they need to succeed.
Learn Give new people context and relationships, then a real first contribution.
Use it when someone is joining the team, or new people struggle to find context.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Give a creative team ownership · 2–4 weeks
Leadership: give a creative team ownership · about 45 minutes of reading
Run the practice7 lessons
- DeStart
Design Intake
A clear route for incoming requests, so each one is assessed, owned and visible.
Learn Every request needs one way in, an owner and a visible status.
Use it when requests arrive through private messages, or nobody knows who owns a request.
Five-step lesson - CaStart
Capacity Planning
Comparing commitments with the time and skills a team actually has.
Learn Before saying yes, decide what moves to make room.
Use it when new work arrives after people and dates are already committed, and you need to show what accepting it would displace.
Five-step lesson - RoStart
Research Operations
The shared support that lets research happen responsibly and repeatedly, like recruiting and payments.
Learn Make the support every study needs someone’s job.
Use it when research logistics take over researchers’ time, or studies keep facing the same delays.
Five-step lesson - AdStart
Change Adoption
Helping people actually use a new way of working, and learning from the switch.
Learn Make the new way easier than the old one.
Use it when a new process or tool isn’t being used.
Five-step lesson - IfStart
Influence Without Authority
Moving shared work forward through evidence, relationships and useful contributions, without formal power.
Learn Influence by making the decision easier for everyone involved.
Use it when a problem crosses team lines, or you’re responsible without the authority to decide.
Five-step lesson - AhStart
A3 Thinking
A one-page way to lay out a problem, its causes, fixes and plan, so the logic can be discussed.
Learn Every fix must connect back to the gap you observed.
Use it when an improvement needs agreement, or proposed fixes don’t seem to fit the problem.
Five-step lesson - FdStart
Founding Design Practice
Building the smallest design practice an early organization actually needs.
Learn As the first designer, build habits that improve future decisions.
Use it when you’re the first designer, or everything seems to need design at once.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Protect quality when demand exceeds capacity · 2–4 weeks
Operations: make good design repeatable · about 30 minutes of reading
Shared decisions6 lessons
- DdStart
Decision Design
Setting up how a decision will be made before it’s made: who decides, on what, by when.
Learn Before a decision, agree who decides, on what evidence, by when.
Use it when a decision needs a named owner, agreed evidence, a deadline and a rule for when it can be reopened.
Five-step lesson - AlStart
Alignment Building
Creating shared understanding and clear commitments among people who must act together.
Learn Write down what’s agreed, and the concerns that remain.
Use it when a decision or plan has support in principle, but teams need to turn that agreement into commitments and resolve remaining concerns.
Five-step lesson - CbStart
Capability Building
Developing the skills a team’s work requires, and the conditions to use them.
Learn Build the ability the work needs, and remove what blocks it.
Use it when the team’s work is changing, or people learned a skill but never use it.
Five-step lesson - SkStart
Stakeholder Mapping
Mapping who influences a decision and who lives with its consequences.
Learn Find who bears the consequences but has no say.
Use it when a decision affects many groups, and some may be missing from planning.
Five-step lesson - InStart
Inclusive Participation
Making room in a process for the people it usually leaves out.
Learn Change how you meet so people usually left out can take part.
Use it when the same voices dominate, or people affected by a decision aren’t being heard.
Five-step lesson - KsStart
Knowledge Stewardship
Keeping evidence and decisions useful after a project ends, so others can find and trust them.
Learn Store findings so others can reuse them without asking you.
Use it when research keeps getting lost, or teams repeat studies that were already done.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Align a cross-functional team · 2–4 weeks
Collaboration: make decisions across a team · about 15 minutes of reading
Executive
Set direction, invest resources and govern responsibly.
Direction and investment7 lessons
- IiStart
Innovation Strategy
Choosing where innovation should create value, and how exploration will be funded and judged.
Learn An innovation strategy must say no to some good ideas.
Use it when you are choosing which new areas to explore and how to fund learning before their business value is clear.
Five-step lesson - DiStart
Direction Setting
Giving teams a shared destination and clear boundaries, so they can make choices without you.
Learn A direction is useful only if it changes what teams choose.
Use it when several teams need a shared outcome for the year and clear boundaries for choosing their work.
Five-step lesson - PpStart
Portfolio Planning
Deciding how to spread people and money across a set of bets, as a whole.
Learn Your strategy is where your people actually work, not what you say.
Use it when you need to move people or funding across several initiatives so the whole set matches the strategy.
Five-step lesson - OkStart
Objectives & Key Results
A goal-setting method that links a clear objective to a few measurable results, reviewed regularly.
Learn Key results measure the change, not the activity.
Use it when teams deliver projects but can’t say what changed, or goals can’t be checked.
Five-step lesson - BcStart
Business Cases
A document that makes an investment decision reviewable through its options, costs and assumptions.
Learn Find the one assumption the whole investment depends on.
Use it when you need funding for work, or a proposal needs a credible case.
Five-step lesson - BsStart
Budget Stewardship
Keeping spending tied to commitments, and to the costs that continue after a purchase.
Learn Before cutting a cost, find where its work and risk go.
Use it when the budget is under pressure, or tool and service costs keep growing.
Five-step lesson - BmStart
Business Model Literacy
Understanding how an organization creates value, delivers it and earns enough to keep going.
Learn Know how each design choice changes revenue or cost.
Use it when you don’t know how the business makes money, or your design proposals lack support.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Make a credible design investment case · 2–4 weeks
Business: explain the value of design · about 30 minutes of reading
Evidence and decisions6 lessons
- IsStart
Impact Storytelling
Explaining what design contributed, with honest evidence, in terms the audience cares about.
Learn Claim only the part of the result your evidence supports.
Use it when you are reporting results and need to separate your team’s contribution from other changes that happened at the same time.
Five-step lesson - EbStart
Executive Briefings
Short presentations that give decision makers the decision, evidence and consequences at the right level.
Learn Open with the decision you need. Keep the details as backup.
Use it when an executive decision has stalled, or reviews turn into tours of screens.
Five-step lesson - PiStart
Pivot or Persevere
Deciding at set points whether the evidence supports refining an approach or changing it fundamentally.
Learn Decide on evidence, and name the one assumption you’d change.
Use it when repeated experiments aren’t improving results, or the team changes direction without keeping what it learned.
Five-step lesson - IuStart
Innovation Accounting
Tracking what a new venture has learned against its key assumptions, to guide funding decisions.
Learn Measure what you’ve learned, then decide: continue, change or stop.
Use it when reports count activity, like features shipped, without showing what’s now known.
Five-step lesson - McStart
Multi-criteria Decision Analysis
Scoring options against weighted criteria, so the values behind a choice are visible.
Learn Make the weights explicit. The weights often decide the winner.
Use it when people argue about options, and the real disagreement is about what matters.
Five-step lesson - SlStart
Sensitivity Analysis
Testing how much a decision depends on the numbers you’re unsure about.
Learn Find where the decision flips, and check whether that’s likely.
Use it when a decision rests on estimates, like a forecast, a cost or a growth rate.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Choose under uncertainty · 1–2 weeks
Business: explain the value of design · about 30 minutes of reading
Responsible governance8 lessons
- OmStart
Design Operating Models
How design work, ownership and support fit together across an organization.
Learn Choose how design is organized by the failure it must fix.
Use it when teams duplicate work, or shared needs like components or research have no owner.
Five-step lesson - SiStart
Succession Planning
Preparing people and authority so important work continues when someone leaves or is away.
Learn Find what would stop if one person left, and share it now.
Use it when a key person is leaving, or important work has no backup.
Five-step lesson - SuStart
Sustainability
Making environmental commitments shape real design decisions, with someone owning the trade-offs.
Learn Reduce the product’s biggest environmental impact through the choices people use every day.
Use it when you know a product’s main environmental impacts and need to change the design choices that create them.
Five-step lesson - EtStart
Ethical Review
Examining who benefits from a decision, who carries its risks, and whether that’s justified.
Learn Ask who carries the downside, and whether they have a say.
Use it when incentives might push toward harm, or consequences could fall on people not in the room.
Five-step lesson - AiStart
AI Oversight
Designing automated systems with clear limits, human checks that work, and ways to put things right.
Learn Plan how people will notice when AI is confidently wrong.
Use it when you are setting up ongoing accountability for AI decisions, including review, monitoring and appeals.
Five-step lesson - PvStart
Privacy by Design
Building privacy into a product from the start: less data, clear uses and real control.
Learn Collect only the personal data the value really needs.
Use it when a product collects more data than it needs, or people can’t tell how it’s used.
Five-step lesson - LcStart
Lifecycle Design
Designing for a product’s whole life: making it, using it, maintaining it and disposing of it.
Learn Follow a product past the moment of use. Costs appear later.
Use it when a product looks efficient only in use, or nobody designed its repair and disposal.
Five-step lesson - CiStart
Circular Design
Designing products and materials so they can be reused, repaired or recycled after first use.
Learn Design products so their parts can have a next life.
Use it when a product has no useful path after its first owner.
Five-step lesson
After this unit
Introduce AI responsibly · 2–4 weeks
Sustainability: design beyond first use · about 45 minutes of reading
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