Design Process

DFA equips individuals, students, & communities to take on important challenges in their lives and the lives of others.

The DFA Design Process and learning outcomes.

  • Practice systems thinking

    Address root causes, not just symptoms.

  • Build empathy

    Center people with lived experience and develop authentic community partnerships.

  • Break silos

    Nurture innovation by connecting across disciplines and industries.

  • Work together

    Build community visions through shared creativity.

  • Reframe failure

    Respond to real-world feedback by prototyping, testing, and iterating.

Resources

The DFA Design Process

  • The DFA Design Process

    Design Process One-Pagers

    Get a high-level overview of the purpose, methods, and examples for each step of the DFA design process.

    View
  • The DFA Process Guide Book

    Design Process Guide Book

    This 160-page guide provides deep instruction with methods, attitudes, and diagrams to explain how the DFA design process facilitates community-engaged projects.

    View

Studio Resources

  • Studio lead leading team through a project at a design conference

    Leadership

    Studio Leads practice managing teams, teaching the design process, facilitating workshops, and creating an engaging studio environment. Check out these leadership resources to learn how to better lead a DFA studio.

    Visit the resource hub
  • Students collaborating around a desk

    Projects

    Students learn the design process through application, experimentation, and iteration in real-world projects. Find more tools, approaches, and project examples here to enhance your project outcomes.

    Explore the project guide

Design Thinking Tools from Across the Network

  • Students collaborating on a project

    Teaming: Identifying Hopes and Fears to make a Team Contract

    Working with a new team? Use this tool to co-create team norms for success.

    Make a dream team
  • Mapping Ideas with post-its

    Reframe: Abductive Thinking and Sensemaking

    Take an in-depth look at the theory behind synthesis by Jon Kolko, founder of Austin Center for Design.

    Make sense!
  • Planning to bake a cake

    Prototyping: Bake a Cake

    Hungry for prototyping? Digest how and why to build and test in this creative guide written by DFA UC Boulder Founder Carlye Lauff.

    Bake a prototype

  • Immerse: Equitable Empathy Techniques

    This print-out encourages designers to reflect on and identify the assumptions and biases they bring to their work.

    Reflect on biases

  • Teaming: Developing Community Agreements

    This step-by-step activity and facilitator’s guide helps your team build a safe, respectful, and collaborative working environment for all.

    Build team agreements