Meta-Empathy
Core to our process is centering humans who are most deeply impacted by the problem in our designs. Meta-Empathy is about connecting with those people in authentic ways to build relationships and learn more about the problem. We also practice self-awareness and conduct empathy with ourselves (meta-empathy) to understand our own identity, power, and relationship to the problem.
Problem Definition
How we define the problem greatly impacts the solutions we create. To design for equity, we must define our problem equitably. Problem definition includes addressing the 6 Problems with Problems and is a process step we return to throughout the process as we learn more about the problem.
Solution-Finding
Solution-Finding produces potential solutions to address the problem. In addition to generating new ideas, we also explore if dismantling an existing barrier would address the problem, or if we can redesign or amplify an existing solution to create the change we seek.
Prototyping and Testing
A key element of the eXd process is iteration, adapting as we learn more. After generating solution ideas, we bring them to life by building experiential prototypes that we then test with those most proximate to the problem. They provide feedback and redesign it with us to make it a stronger solution idea. Or they might reveal that it’s not solving the problem and we go back to develop a stronger idea.