OpenHPI

Inspirations for Design - A Course on Human-Centered Research (openHPI)

Offered by Hasso-Plattner-Institut,
Inspirations for Design - A Course on Human-Centered Research (openHPI)

Become a proficient explorer of the world around you and find inspirations that may lead to human-centered design solutions. This course will introduce you to crucial methods in design research, which will help you to discover inspirations for innovative solutions. We take a task-based approach to build your competencies and skills: You will learn to spot workarounds, observe potential users in their context and explore the basic skills of conducting insightful interviews.

Learning Objectives

  • spot and analyze workarounds to identify user needs
  • prepare and conduct good qualitative interviews
  • analyze interview notes and identify insights
  • evaluate the quality of your peers' work and provide constructive feedback

Course Structure

WARM-UP / Week 1 (24.8. – 30.8.2017)
This is a chance for you to introduce yourself and get to know the learning environment and your peers with the help of an exercise.
Time commitment: 1h – 1:40h
OBSERVATION / Week 2 (31.8. – 6.9.2017)
The week focuses on the skill of careful observation and introduces you to workarounds and misuses.
Time commitment: 1h – 1:40h
CONDUCTING QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS / Week 3 (7.9. – 13.9.2017)
This week focuses on the role of qualitative interviewing and how to conduct a good interview.
Time commitment: 3h – 3:40h
INFERRING MEANING FROM INTERVIEWS / Week 4 (13.9. – 20.9.2017)
After you conducted your own interviews, this week's module introduces you to interpreting your findings and inferring meaning from them - the first step towards gathering inspirations for design solution!
Time commitment: 1h – 1:20h
WRAP-UP / Week 5 (20.9 – 28.9.2017)
In this week, we will provide a summary of what you have learned. We will talk about future steps and discuss some of the best assignment results with you.
Time commitment: 0:30h – 1h

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Design Thinking for Innovation (Coursera) Coursera
University of Virginia

Design Thinking for Innovation (Coursera)

Management & Leadership Business

Today innovation is everyone's business. Whether you are a manager in a global corporation, an entrepreneur starting up, in a government role, or a teacher in an elementary school, everyone is expected to get lean – to do better with less. And that is why we all need design thinking. At every level in every kind of organization, design thinking provides the tools you need to become an innovative thinker and uncover creative opportunities that are there – you're just not seeing them yet.

Aug 3rd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Business Entrepreneurship Business Strategy
Details
Pensamiento de diseño para la innovación (Coursera) Coursera
University of Virginia

Pensamiento de diseño para la innovación (Coursera)

Business

Hoy en día la innovación es el negocio de todos. Ya sea un gerente en una corporación global, un emprendedor que está comenzando, que esté en un puesto gubernamental o un maestro en una escuela primaria, se espera que todos se vuelvan austeros, para hacerlo mejor con menos. Y ese es el motivo por el que todos necesitamos el pensamiento de diseño.

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Business Entrepreneurship Business Strategy
Details
Mastering Design Thinking in Organizations (openHPI) OpenHPI
Hasso-Plattner-Institut

Mastering Design Thinking in Organizations (openHPI)

CS: Information & Technology Business

Design thinking (DT) is a valuable approach for enabling effective innovation in organizations (Kolko 2015). Just as a company’s, objectives for DT are diverse, so is the diversity of how and why organizations implement and succeed DT. While some companies start small in one department, others make DT part of their strategy and implement DT globally throughout the whole organization and embed it into their corporate DNA.

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Innovation Leadership Design Thinking
Details
Co-design for All: doing co-design in practice (Coursera) Coursera
Eindhoven University of Technology

Co-design for All: doing co-design in practice (Coursera)

Social Sciences

The Co-design for All course is a free online programme on how to put together a case study proposal using a co-design approach. It is aimed at anyone who is interested in learning about co-design methods and how to apply them in any real life scenario. By the end of the course, you will have learned how to put together a case study proposal using co-design. This will be achieved by learning how to adapt and apply these methods to your chosen real life scenario and by producing materials contextualized to it.

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Research Methods Research Design Research
Details
Innovación Educativa (Coursera) Coursera
Tecnológico de Monterrey

Innovación Educativa (Coursera)

Education

El curso de Innovación Educativa tiene como intención que el estudiante conozca y aplique los conceptos de tendencias e innovación educativa. En él conocerá tendencias en educación como flipped classroom, gamificación, educación basada en competencias, etc.; así como la metodología de design thingking para llevar a cabo una innovación partiendo de una necesidad del usuario. Además, se adentrará en temas de competencias digitales, tecnologías emergentes abarcando sus ventajas y desventajas, así como modelos de incorporación de tecnología educativa.

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Innovation Gamification Design Thinking
Details
User Experience & Interaction Design for AR/VR/MR/XR (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

User Experience & Interaction Design for AR/VR/MR/XR (Coursera)

CS: Design & Product Computer Science

This second course in the XR for Everybody specialization looks at how to design new user experiences for XR technologies. The course provides learners with a design thinking mindset and equips them with a fundamental toolbox for creating XR applications using rapid prototyping. It starts with a broad overview of the complete XR design process, discussing different paths to becoming an XR creator, what is generally involved in making XR experiences, and how to best get started.

Aug 3rd 2026
4 Weeks
Prototyping User Experience Interaction Design
Details
Design Thinking and Predictive Analytics for Data Products (Coursera) Coursera
University of California, San Diego

Design Thinking and Predictive Analytics for Data Products (Coursera)

Statistics & Data Analysis Data Science

This is the second course in the four-course specialization Python Data Products for Predictive Analytics, building on the data processing covered in Course 1 and introducing the basics of designing predictive models in Python. In this course, you will understand the fundamental concepts of statistical learning and learn various methods of building predictive models.

Aug 3rd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Data Analysis Design Thinking Data Products
Details
Digital Product Management: Modern Fundamentals (Coursera) Coursera
University of Virginia

Digital Product Management: Modern Fundamentals (Coursera)

Management & Leadership

Not so long ago, the job of product manager was about assessing market data, creating requirements, and managing the hand-off to sales/marketing. Maybe you’d talk to a customer somewhere in there and they’d tell you what features they wanted. But companies that manage product that way are dying. Being a product person today is a new game, and product managers are at the center of it. Today, particularly if your product is mostly digital, you might update it several times a day. Massive troves of data are available for making decisions and, at the same time, deep insights into customer motivation and experience are more important than ever.

Aug 10th 2026
4 Weeks
Management Design Thinking Digital Product
Details
Customer Insights: New Product Development Orientation (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Customer Insights: New Product Development Orientation (Coursera)

Marketing & Communication Business

This course is the first in the Customer Insights and New Product Development (CIPD) specialization. It will introduce learners to the tools and process of gathering customer insights for identifying and developing new product opportunities. Through an integrated set of five modules and hands-on project experiences, learners will acquire the knowledge and skills to turn their ideas gained from understanding customer needs into innovative new products.

Aug 3rd 2026
4 Weeks
Design Thinking Customer New Product
Details
Using Design to Generate Innovative Business Solutions (Coursera) Coursera
Parsons School of Design, The New School

Using Design to Generate Innovative Business Solutions (Coursera)

Business

This rigorous online course shows you how to use design to generate innovative business solutions. It starts by focusing on alternative design methodologies, including the non-negotiable essentials: design thinking methodology and jobs to be done. It then delves into strategies for choosing the right business model. This includes exploring value-creating and sustainable business models. After covering these foundational concepts, the course examines design tools that can be used to develop the business model in market by creating shared value and tips to manage the conversion funnel. The course concludes by looking at digital dynamics and providing insider tips to promote success.

Aug 3rd 2026
4 Weeks
Prototyping Design Thinking Business Model
Details