IBM Design Process
The Design Process is an approach for breaking down a large project into manageable chunks. Using this process to define the steps needed to tackle each project, and remember to hold to all of your ideas and sketches throughout the process. The design process is relatively the same in most of its applications. It may look slightly different or be called something different, but it’s essentially the same process. The design process is broken down into five steps. Those steps are Define, Research, Ideate, Build, Test.
- Define — Know the problem you are trying to solve or who are you solving it for
- Research — Learn everything about the topic and the users because you are not the expert
- Ideate — Brainstorm solutions for the design problem, Many different ideas sketches
- Build — Create a prototype for the best idea, Something so find a mistake in so it is not found later when you pay for a final print
- Test — Show the client what you have in a close to finish the final product as you can
The design process that the IBM design team goes through for every project is a long and mind-bending process. I have seen many of there projects and was amazed by there work. The designs that they make are very creative and make it interesting to look at what they create. IBM uses there own design thinking process that comes in three main stages that are split up into three sections that they use in there IBM design process.
IBM Design Process
The first section of there design process is, what they call, the principles. These are the foundational elements of there approach. It is layout in three parts called:
- A focus on user outcomes
Who are you designing for, and what do they need?
- Restless reinvention
When’s the last time you rethought what you’re making?
- Diverse empowered teams
Do you have the right mix of makers?
The second section of the process is The Loop. It is used to understand the present and look forward to the future. It is layout in three parts called:
- Observe
To drive meaningful outcomes for there users, they must first gain a deep understanding of the challenges they face.
- Reflect
Coming together to reflect on their observations helps them synthesize and analyze findings, building a more nuanced understanding of there users across the team.
- Make
Rapid, low-fidelity prototyping allows them to simulate ideas and test hypotheses quickly and cheaply. The end result: solutions that are robust, effective, and battle-tested.
The third section is The Keys of there process. It is used to get great user outcomes using their scalable framework. It is layout in three parts called:
- Hills
Hills are concise statements of the goals they aim to help their users accomplish. By making these goals explicit and evaluating them regularly, they align teams around a single shared mission.
- Playbacks
Playbacks are regular check-ins that bring users, stakeholders, and teams together to tell stories and exchange feedback. They allow them to measure progress on a regular basis while uncovering and addressing any misalignment that may exist.
- Sponsor Users
Sponsor users are real-world users that provide teams with deep expertise and knowledge on the problems they’re facing. They are crucial to keeping them aligned with their users’ reality throughout the course of a project.
The IBM Design process really does affect the way I’m going to think about my projects in the future. It makes the process simple to understand and I like that they put the user as the most important. At the end of the day, they are the ones that matter the most because they are the ones that are going to be affected by the project the most.
