https://www.nngroup.com/articles/journey-mapping-101/

Journey mapping is a common UX tool to visualize the journey that a stakeholder takes to accomplish a goal (e.g., getting to work every morning, finding the right health care, identifying personal strategies to reduce waste). Journey mapping is useful for uncovering the pain points, as well as moments of achievement in a person's decision-making process. Design teams use this information to generate possible solutions to a civic challenge.

https://uxdesign.cc/do-you-focus-on-the-wrong-product-problem-cf48950151f6

It is important that you ask the right questions and solve the right problem. Read this case study about McDonald's trying to increase their sales of Milkshakes and how they put research into solving the wrong problem.

https://uxdesign.cc/designing-a-better-future-with-inclusive-user-research-fb6a2a1c7c73

User research is crucial to the design process and helps influence our design decisions. Learn a few tips for conducting inclusive user research and get the best data to help you along the way.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7YXKZ5JyYu4V3lyekl3c081ejQ

The underlying thesis of ‘Design for Worldview’ -- that we all share an innate creativity even as we share innate, unconscious bias and our creativity can and should be leveraged to disrupt our biases -- presents an opportunity to think differently about both unconscious bias awareness and the introduction-to-design-thinking experience. We hope you will accept this invitation to make this the experience that works best for you, your team, your organization or even your family and friends.

https://resources.depaul.edu/abcd-institute/resources/Documents/DorfmanMappingCommunityAssetsWorkBook.pdf

Identifying the community assets available to us in a civic design project can be difficult and incomprehensive. This tool helps you and your collaborators discover and pool together those assets in a worksheet format.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFcjfqmVah8

Our brains are wired to make assumptions, which can sometimes be off base. We think it's an honest mistake; science calls it a blind spot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V196868TJbo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJLqOclPqis

Every day, we meet people and process our interactions--making inferences and developing beliefs about the world around us. In this lesson, Trevor Maber introduces us to the idea of a ladder of inference and a process for rethinking the way we interact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw9TOjyCWiM

Tips for collecting strong qualitative data while conducting semi structured interviews, which is especially important for resource constrained teams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UynxDyr0lAo

https://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/methodology/phase1-understand/luma-abstraction-laddering

Concrete website outlining the many methods discussed in the book, as well as where and when to use them. Comes with various "case studies" which serve as helpful examples and help organizations adapt the sprint to their unique needs.

https://storage.googleapis.com/loft-io.appspot.com/5728464931913728/Design_Procees_1-Pagers_v.1.pdf

Guidebook showcasing the process that DFA uses for social innovation across all its chapters. While being research driven, the guidebook also provides examples and tips for how you can apply this process to a civic problem

https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/what-is-ideation-in-design-thinking/

Ideation is a process all designers go through, and getting ideas out on the table can be difficult when hitting a creative block. Take a look at some tips to bring to your next ideation session to help generate more and more ideas for your solution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAidvTKX6xM

Watch this video for some ways to get ideas out from your head onto paper with your teammates! These are fun activities that help stimulate creativity and can help push a project in the initial phase.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMjozqJS44M

Learn how to quickly get your ideas on paper and share them with others

Have an idea in your head? It's important to get feedback early on to guide you along the design process. Watch this video for tips on how to quickly sketch out an idea and prototype it with potential users.

https://diytoolkit.org/tools/

This is a guidebook essentially laying out the different methods for social innovation. Each link describes the method in depth, providing an example of its use and when it should be used.

https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/rapid-prototyping/

When ideating and prototyping, it is crucial to move fast and generate as many ideas as you can. In this article, you can learn about a common design technique called rapid prototyping, which consists of quickly generating and testing ideas to help designers discover and validate their prototypes. Take a look at this article for an example on how to structure your first rapid prototyping session.

https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/6-tips-for-how-to-prototype-a-service

Thinking about designing a service? Learn how to prototype each step in the process that stakeholders will go through. See service prototyping in action and look at how two designers designed a service to not only serve as a checklist for nurses but also inform mothers of the steps they need to take before taking their baby home from the hospital.

https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/how-to-conduct-user-experience-research-like-a-professional/

Ready to test your prototype? Read about different user research methods, how to conduct them, and when to use certain testing methods over others.

https://issuu.com/streetplanscollaborative/docs/tactical_urbanism_vol_2_final?mode=window&backgroundColor=%23222222

Tactical urbanism involves short, temporary, low cost strategies to demonstrate what change might look and feel like in a space, to generate ideas and motivate support for change. This playbook includes a range of ideas about how to get started, by reviewing past efforts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWGBGTGryFk

Learn how to transfer your sketches to a digital platform without coding

Have an idea sketched out but want to see how it looks on a device? Learn to transfer sketches to a digital platform without writing a single line of code.

https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/

https://www.thedesignexchange.org/design_methods

A repository of early design stage methods, engaging all stakeholders in the design community of practice, and integrating online learning with real case studies to demonstrate the methods

https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-effectively-pitch-business-ideas-to-investors-dd76661b02f1

What's your big idea? Can you say it in under 1-minute. This Medium post offers several thoughts about how to craft an effective pitch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYFS4K3p2Aw

Not sure how to pitch your project? This video outlines some of the biggest obstacles to pitching potential creative work, and how we might get over that. Also contains tips on how to convey creative work to stakeholders who aren't designers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuxnzuH3XiM

An example and analysis of how Airbnb's pitch deck contributed to its success in raising $500K. Great pointers on how to pitch new products from an entrepreneurial perspective.

https://d4sd.org/resources/stakeholder

Addressing civic challenges often involves understanding diverse perspectives from many stakeholders, including people who are directly and indirectly impacted by a particular problem. Towards the goal of supporting community-driven design, we developed a guide to help participants and mentors establish and build relationships with community stakeholders. Always remember that stakeholders are people.

https://www.frogdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/CAT-English.pdf

Complete guidebook outlining the specific methods that exist for community driven design, as well as outlining Frog's CAT design process for people. Also provides step by step (Plans of Action) which organizations and groups can adapt.

http://ourcommunity.is/engaged/

Learn about community building with stakeholders through a process of listening, hearing, needfinding, and prototyping with neighborhoods

https://media.nesta.org.uk/documents/the_open_book_of_social_innovation.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XC4JqXUJbw&feature=emb_title

Ready to gather feedback, but not sure how to capture it? This video shows the "feedback capture grid", which allows us to capture important feedback and insights from the testing phase, helping with future iterations

https://ourworldindata.org/

Unlike news articles that tend to report data about events, the Our World in Data initiative aims to track key indicators of economic, health, environmental, justice, etc., related trends

https://data.sandiego.gov/

https://data.sandiegocounty.gov/

http://datasurfer.sandag.org/

https://sdg-tracker.org/

https://data.ca.gov/

https://dot.ca.gov/programs/traffic-operations/census

http://pems.dot.ca.gov/

https://www.un.org/en/databases/

https://moovitapp.com/insights/en/Moovit_Insights_Public_Transit_Index-582

Access data about how people move around San Diego, whether it be commute time, trip distance, public transit transfer counts, or walking distnace.

http://rmp-wapps.ucsd.edu/TS/Survey/

Learn more about UCSD trends in parking, commuting, and transportation by studying this collection of reports and surveys.

https://www.census.gov/data.html

https://app.pactful.org/innovators-guide

The Jacobs Institute for Innovation in Education

What if you could build a better world? The Jacobs Institute for Innovation in Education at the University of San Diego is calling for middle- and high-school educators to join us in our effort to make a local and global impact. Through the Jacobs Institute Changemaker Challenge in Spring 2020, educators and teenagers will develop an innovator’s mindset and the skills to create solutions to local or global problems.