• University of Leeds
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  • Institute of Coding logo

Get Creative with People to Solve Problems

Increase your problem-solving skills and develop your design thinking mindset using the principles of human-centred design.

4,134 enrolled on this course

Get Creative with People to Solve Problems

4,134 enrolled on this course

  • 2 weeks

  • 3 hours per week

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Introductory level

Find out more about how to join this course

Find solutions to a range of problems using design thinking

How are the products we use every day created and designed? Human-centered design is being used by companies, startups, and governments all over the world to solve the problems by understanding the needs of people who face them.

On this two-week course, you’ll gain a practical insight into why this method of thinking is effective, how to use it, and which jobs benefit from the process.

You’ll take part in activities and become familiar with how to collect the right information and data to prove a solution can work in the real world.

Discover the importance of human-centred design

Human-centred design is a creative approach that focuses on understanding the needs of the people who have a problem, in order to design appropriate solutions.

This course will show you how putting people first in design delivers results, as well as how to develop your own design thinking mindset.

You’ll build skills in empathy, brainstorming, and making prototypes, and see how something as simple as asking the right questions can make your product stand out.

As well as identifying the kinds of problems that can be solved with human-centred design, you’ll experiment with the process through a series of simple activities to understand what is needed to make a successful design project.

Gain insights from industry experts

Learning from experts in the field, you’ll discover how to design great products for and with real people. You’ll also understand how to apply design thinking to real-world problems to see the process in action.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to summarise the activities needed to run a successful human-centred design project whilst developing your design thinking mindset.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 6 seconds Ryzard Akita: How are the products we use every day created and designed? Ever wondered what goes into making them? Human-centered design is being used by companies, startups, and governments all over the world to solve the problems we face through design. By using creative and innovative designs, this approach puts humans at the heart of the design process. Get Creative with People to Solve Problems demonstrates how putting people first in design gets results. This course is part of a program of three courses in the solving problems with technology strand from FutureLearn, the Institute of Coding, and the University of Leeds. Join experts in the field of design to discover how to design great products for and with real people.

Skip to 0 minutes and 53 seconds And how to develop your own design thinking mindset. Experiment with skills like empathy, brainstorming, and making prototypes. See how something as simple as asking the right questions can make your product stand out. This course is part of our suite of professional and digital skill courses from the University of Leeds and the Institute of Coding. Covering topics from coding to social media marketing. All available for free to help you build your career today. Whether you’re new to the line of work or forging a new career for yourself, we look forward to sharing your journey into the fast-moving digital space. Join us online.

Syllabus

  • Week 1

    Introducing Human-Centred Design

    • Welcome to the week

      This week, you’ll learn about human-centred design and the design process, explore the benefits of understanding people’s real needs when you’re solving problems, and test ways to develop your design mindset.

    • What is the human-centred design process?

      This activity introduces the process of human-centred design and outlines some techniques that help designers focus on people and their needs.

    • A look at the five phases of HCD

      This activity will discuss the five phase process behind human-centred design projects in more detail and the tasks that support HCD.

    • Developing a human-centred design mindset

      In this activity, you’ll explore how you can develop a human-centred design mindset, through research and practising empathy.

    • Summary

      In these steps, we reflect on what we’ve covered, and think of a problem to solve next week.

  • Week 2

    Designing for Real People

    • Welcome to the week

      This week, you’ll apply human-centred design to a real-world problem, investigate how making and testing rough prototypes helps improve your work. You’ll also collect information to help prove your solution works.

    • Empathise and Define

      In this activity, you’ll work through the first two steps of the human-centred design process: empathise and define.

    • Ideate

      In this activity, you’ll explore the creative thinking techniques that help us ‘ideate’. This means generating many ideas to solve a problem in novel or innovative ways.

    • Prototype

      In this activity, you’ll explore how making prototypes helps you discover how to make your ideas better. You’ll also try making a simple prototype.

    • Reflection, testing and iteration

      In this activity, you’ll discover how you can learn from prototypes by testing them and how iteration helps you improve your designs.

    • Summary

      You’ve nearly reached the end of the course, so these steps will help you reflect on what you’ve learned.

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Identify the kinds of problem that can be solved with human-centred design
  • Summarise the activities needed to run a successful human-centred design project
  • Develop a human-centred design mindset to approach a problem
  • Apply the Design Thinking process to a real-world problem
  • Investigate how making and testing rough prototypes helps improvement
  • Collect information and data that help prove a solution will work in the real world

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for anyone interested in building on their skills and developing a design thinking mindset to tackle problems in the workplace.

You could be a graduate or working but looking to improve your career prospects with sought-after skills.

If you would like to deepen your understanding of this subject, you may be interested in these courses. They’re fro the same provider and share similar subjects and overall learning outcomes:

Who will you learn with?

I'm a creative digital producer and product manager, and helped establish the National Film and Television School’s first digital producing course. I have a secret double life as an artist.

Who developed the course?

University of Leeds

As one of the UK’s largest research-based universities, the University of Leeds is a member of the prestigious Russell Group and a centre of excellence for teaching.

Click Start

This course is part of Click Start, a nationwide training programme developed by the Institute of Coding (IoC) , a national collaboration of universities, employers and charities and funded by Nominet – the public benefit company and guardians of the .UK namespace.

Institute of Coding

The Institute of Coding (IoC) is a national collaboration of employers, universities, and charities, on a mission to provide people from all walks of life with access to digital learning and career opportunities.

Endorsers and supporters

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Choose the best way to learn for you!

Upgrade and unlock this entire course now

Buy this course

$54/one-off payment

Fulfill your current learning need

  • Access to this course
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Subscribe & save

$349.99 for one year

Automatically renews

Develop skills to further your career

  • Access to this course
  • Access to 1,000+ courses
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Digital certificate when you're eligible

Cancel for free anytime

Start learning today

Free

Try this course - with limits

  • Limited to 2 weeks

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