1st Edition
Don’t Force It, Solve It! How To Design Meaningful and Efficient Design Processes
"Knowing various frameworks and methodologies is crucial.… This book takes you one step further by transforming individuals or teams into adaptable problem-solving powerhouses."
George Ketsiakidis, Design Researcher, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
"George is a master of design process thinking, and it comes out in every word of his writing."
Ryan Gerber, Founder, Quest Labs
It’s not how much time we spend on design that impacts product and service success: it’s whether that time has been spent on solving the right problems. The field of design, with a greater focus on user-centered design, steadily acquires a central position on the work of product design teams. From large corporate environments to startups, multidisciplinary teams of developers, designers, project managers, and product managers need to find ways to understand each other’s needs, overcome obstacles, communicate efficiently, and perform, creating products that satisfy their users’ needs.
In an era when the main differentiating factor between products are the teams that created them, George Kalmpourtzis’ Don’t Force It, Solve It!: How To Design Meaningful and Efficient Design Processes is the perfect roadmap for navigating the twisting paths of project management and user-centered design.
KEY FEATURES:
• This book aims at helping software teams work more efficiently by setting up their own design processes.
• For organizations, this book helps decode the design processes, allowing them to deliver experiences that address the real problems of their audiences.
• This book offers a combination of theory and practice that will help its readers understand how to design efficient processes and apply this knowledge in their own work.
• This book includes many insights in the form of colorful doodles.
George Kalmpourtzis is an award-winning User Experience & Learning Experience Consultant and Game Designer. Finding himself between the fields of educational technology, design, and game studies, he has been founder, C-level stakeholder, director, and board member of several design studios, startups, and consulting agencies.
Chapter 1 If Only There Was a Way to Make Design More Efficient
Section I Don’t Force It, Solve It!
Chapter 2 Processes, Humans, and Design
Chapter 3 The Biggest Design Secret
Chapter 4 The Human-Centered Process
Chapter 5 Let’s Make a Process
Chapter 6 The Process Core
Chapter 7 Don’t Force It, Play!
Chapter 8 An Introduction to Team Dynamics
Section II The Design Process Rectangle
Chapter 9 How to Read This Section
Chapter 10 Phase 1 – Finding and Understanding Problems
Chapter 11 Phase 2 – Coming Up with Problem-Solving Strategies
Chapter 12 Phase 3 – Applying and Exploring Solutions
Chapter 13 Phase 4 – Assessing Solutions and Processes
Section III The Creative Stakeholder’s Journey
Chapter 14 The Final Chapter
Biography
George Kalmpourtzis is an award-winning User Experience & Learning Experience Consultant and Game Designer. Finding himself between the fields of educational technology, design and game studies, he has been founder, C-level stakeholder, director and board member of several design studios, start-ups and consulting agencies.
George has worked on a diverse portfolio of projects and contexts, spanning from highly complex dashboards to video games and from XR interfaces to mobile apps. He is currently helping design, learning & development and product teams around the globe set-up efficient and fun creative processes and bring user-centered creative problem solving in the heart of design. George also holds bachelor’s degrees in both education and engineering, a master’s degree in information systems and a PhD in design pedagogy. He has created, taught courses and given lectures in academic institutions all over the world.
Knowing various frameworks and methodologies is crucial, especially if a team has to deal with various design challenges. This book takes you one step further by transforming individuals or teams into adaptable problem-solving powerhouses.
George Ketsiakidis, Design Researcher, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
George is a master of design process thinking, and it comes out in every word of his writing. In ‘Don’t force it, Solve it!’ he speaks from his years of hands-on experience, providing tangible steps and methodologies designed to activate creative teams.
Ryan Gerber, Founder, Quest Labs
