PRACTICAL MAGIC: 
UNDERSTANDING AND
DESIGNING FOR 
HUMAN NEEDS

MIKI ASO 

The shift from traditional design to that of designing interconnected experiences asks designers to be able to think critically across mediums and physical locations. 

In this class students will gain practical experience in qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to uncover people’s emotions, behaviors, and aspirations to inform design decisions that can be applied to all mediums.

Students will explore ethnographic approaches, usability and testing, field immersions, secondary and analogous  research, expert consultation, and most importantly how to make sense of data to get to actionable insights that inform design.

Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer at Friends

Miki Aso is co-founder and CSO of Friends, a collaborative design and innovation company based in Brooklyn, New York. As CSO, she leads the strategy and design research practice for Friends.

Miki works alongside teams and leaders to transform the relationship between companies and people. She is constantly in search of new ways to support partners as they do things they’ve never done before and believes that design is as much facilitation as it is vision.

Her 6 years of experience spans client work from global companies and start-ups to nonprofits and government entities. This past year she’s been thrilled to work alongside healthcare innovators creating and experimenting with the future of health, as well as construction workers to co-design their jobsite experience to be one that nurtures relationships and celebrates progress.

Miki is fascinated by the weird, wild, and beautiful qualities that make us human. She loves the absurd and silly, and is on a mission to design the future we want to live in. 

• Give students an understanding of the value and application of design research

• Provide an overview of a people centered design process

• Provide students with a spectrum of research methods and tools through case studies, project work, and in-field practice

• Guide students to develop their own research approach given a specific brief.

• Learn how to synthesize research into actionable insights that can be communicated with ease.

SKILLS:

- User Centered Design

- Service Design

- Design Research

- Usability Testing

- Concept Development

- Illustration

- Design Strategy

- Ethnography

- Photography

ABOUT MIKI

HARBOUR.SPACE 

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

DATE: 29 Apr - 17 May, 2019

DURATION: 3 Weeks

LECTURES: 3 Hours per day

LANGUAGE: English

LOCATION: Barcelona, Harbour.Space Campus

COURSE TYPE: Offline

HARBOUR.SPACE UNIVERSITY

RESERVE MY SPOT

@_MikiAso

DATE: 29 Apr - 17 May, 2019

DURATION:  3 Weeks

LECTURES: 3 Hours per day

LANGUAGE: English

LOCATION: Barcelona, Harbour.Space Campus

COURSE TYPE: Offline

All rights reserved. 2018

DESIGN RESEARCH 
METHODS & PRACTICE

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Introduction to Information Retrieval
by Christopher D. Manning, 
Prabhakar Raghavan, etc.

The shift from traditional design to that of designing interconnected experiences asks designers to be able to think critically across mediums and physical locations. 

In this class students will gain practical experience in qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to uncover people’s emotions, behaviors, and aspirations to inform design decisions that can be applied to all mediums.

Students will explore ethnographic approaches, usability and testing, field immersions, secondary and analogous  research, expert consultation, and most importantly how to make sense of data to get to actionable insights that inform design.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Design for the Real World
by Victor Papanek

Innovating for People 
by Luma Institute

Convivial Toolbox by Elizabeth 
Sanders & Pieter Jan Stappers

COURSE OUTLINE