Tools and inspiration
Design Thinking Toolkit
Warm-ups, tools, inspiration and data for working with the design thinking method. Pick one and get started.
Open the toolkit ↓
To get started
Warm-ups
Short exercises that wake up the imagination and get the team going. Draw, roll the dice, tell a story.
Four Rooms
Walk through four rooms and discover your innovator’s potential.
Play →
Oblique Strategies for the Algorithm
Cards that lead human and artificial intelligence beyond the obvious ideas.
Draw a card →
Tell it to someone from 1726
Draw something modern and explain it to a visitor from three hundred years ago.
Draw a card →
Oblique Strategies
Enigmatic cards that make you look at a problem from an entirely different side.
Draw a card →
Story Dice
Roll virtual picture dice and build a story or an idea out of them.
Roll the dice →
Random Wikipedia page
One click and you get a fresh stimulus from a random article.
Draw a page →
Marshmallow Challenge
Spaghetti, tape and a marshmallow. Who will build the tallest tower?
See →
30 circles
Turn thirty circles into thirty things before time runs out.
Download →
Finish the picture
A few lines to start. The rest is up to your imagination.
See →For project work
Tools
Apps that help you move from a diagnosis to a working prototype.
Discover
Ready-made templates for the Discover stage, online or to print.
Open →
Define
Ready-made templates for the Define stage, online or to print.
Open →
AI tools
Selected artificial intelligence tools that support design work.
See the list →
App mock-ups
Quick app mock-ups and wireframes in the browser.
See →
Mobile apps
A working app built from an ordinary spreadsheet.
See →
Memes
A meme generator that helps you sum up an idea with humour.
See →
Tests
Tests that help you get to know yourself and your team.
See →To watch
Videos
Talks that change the way you look at creativity, prototypes and constraints.
Ken Robinson
On how school can nurture creativity.
Watch →
Tim Brown
On play and creativity, with a warm-up to try.
Watch →
How do you make toast?
Tom Wujec shows how a simple question untangles complex problems.
Watch →
Tom Chi
Prototyping Google Glass in a single day.
Watch →
Doug Dietz
How creative design is changing healthcare.
Watch →
The power of creative constraints
Brandon Rodriguez of NASA on how constraints drive ideas.
Watch →
Dan Gilbert
On money and happiness, or what we really need.
Watch →From real life
Stories
Projects, failures and perspectives that teach more than many a textbook.
Estonia
Students use design thinking to work on a real challenge.
Read →
Museum of Failure
Failed products from around the world and the lessons they teach.
Visit →
Empathy
A comic about how much we gain by looking from someone else’s perspective.
See →
PoMOC Młodych at KUL
Students act for the benefit of the community.
See →
Buenos Aires
Service learning at the University of Buenos Aires.
See →Facts over hunches
Data
Indicators and databases that help you check your assumptions before you start a project.
Factfulness
Check how up to date your picture of the world is.
Take the quiz →
Sustainable Development Goals
Seventeen areas where the world has the most to do.
See →
Better Life Index
Well-being measured by more than wealth.
See →
Human Development Index
Health, education and standard of living in one comparison.
See →
Rule of Law Index
How the law works in countries around the world.
See →
Press Freedom Index
The annual ranking of media freedom.
See →
Eurostat
Statistics of the European Union.
See →
World Bank
Development data for countries around the world.
See →
World Trade Organization
International trade in numbers.
See →
EBRD
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
See →
UNCTAD
Trade and development according to the UN.
See →Worth a visit
Places
Websites of universities and labs worth visiting when you look for inspiration for your own classes.
