Double Diamond and Values
The double diamond is a design process constructed by the British Design Council as a result of the research they conducted about how leading companies manage design in business.
The two diamonds represent a process of diverging and converging on an issue. This means exploring the issue wide and/or deep (divergent thinking) before narrowing down and taking focused action (convergent thinking).
Applying human values to the double diamond
The double diamond process is typically broken down into 4 defined stages to reflect the converging and diverging processes. This consists of: discover, define, develop and deliver. We describe how human values can be applied at each phase.
Discover: This stage involves understanding what drives your audience to think and act how they do. This information helps to identify the problem space and business challenge.
Here, we recommend using the human value value cards and cultural probes to identify what is important to your audience in addition to their thoughts, actions and behaviours. The cards can be used with audience members through a process of identifying human values (cards) that resonate, and discussing these to understand how the values translate to their lives. By allowing your audience to express their opinions through whichever discovery method you might use (e.g. interviews, focus groups, surveys), you start to understand their values and what is important to them.
Define: The insight gathered from the discovery phase can help to define the challenge or problem that you are attempting to solve. In this stage, we recommend using the Human Values Desk Research Report to learn more about what those identified human values mean. The research report explains the psychology behind each human value, as well as empirical research conducted with over 3000 UK participants.
Develop: This is where you approach the defined challenge or problem with the multidisciplinary team, by designing, developing and refining ideas. We recommend using the How Might We cards, to start to ideate around the human values, as well as the Human Values Ethical cards which can be used as discussion about how you intend to fulfil audience human values. It is important that this stage you co-design with a range of different people who identify with the value you are trying to meet. You will most likely develop a range of solutions to the problem you are intending to solve.
Deliver: Here is where you test out your potential solutions and reject ideas that will not deliver your human values, as well as improve the ones that will. You can use the Human Values Proposition Canvas to map out your idea/s. In this canvas, you can define what your idea is, who it is intended for, why you think this approach is key, and how you know it will be a success. This is a great structure for when you are evaluating solutions within a cross discipline team.