101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization Paperback – Illustrated, October 9, 2012

I give this book my highest recommendation!Design has become a very popular concept in management over the past several years. Unfortunately, design has been like quantum physics in its application. It was hard to explain and the concepts often seemed to be both contradictory and useful at the same time.In 101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization, Professor Kumar leverages his wealth of experience in practical design to provide a very approachable, consistent, and understandable methodology for design. The chapters are laid out in a logical sequence, and the author is ruthlessly consistent in applying the methodology. The entire book is structured, and the subsections are numbered in a way that constantly brings you back to the underlying process.Each step is described in detail with the inputs, techniques, outputs, and information flows clearly articulated. There are examples with pictures sprinkled through every chapter.The book is lavishly illustrated and brightly colored. (When I read the book on the commute to work, I routinely had people on the DC metro asking me to let them page through it.) It is fun to read, and I bought five copies of the book the day after I read it to immediately apply Professor Kumar's techniques to a real world, strategic issue my group was wrestling with.The results have been phenomenal.Bravo Professor Kumar!Now, if you would just write a book on quantum mechanics!In service,RichThe Original Dr. Games since 1993

I moved into UX design from software development about ten years ago, and have read about 50 books on user experience design. My top four are:1. Universal Principles of Design, by Lidwell, et. al.2. The Design of Everyday Things, by Don Norman3. Sketching User Experiences, the Workbook, by Bill Buxton, et. al.4. This book, 101 Design MethodsThe first two on my list are about design principles. They help you understand how to recognize and diagnose poor design.The second two are about the design process. What steps do you go through to get a good design?I don't believe in highly prescriptive processes, and the author of this book doesn't either. Since projects and teams vary so much, you need a menu of options to construct a good design process for your circumstances. This book gives you many, many options, and discusses the pros and cons of each. I found myself knowing right away if I thought a particular method would work for me and the teams I lead.If you are looking for step-by-step recipes to do design, this isn't the book for you. If you want to consider lots of ways to do design, and choose the ones you think apply to your case, then I don't think you can find a better book for that than this one.

Lots of ideas for looking in depth at different situations. Not sure there are really 101 unique ideas but it's a pretty useful book.

I am not surprised at the level of differences in the many reviews for this book as it really depends on what the reader is looking for before purchasing. I too use this in a course that I teach for the primary reason that it places structure around the topic and can be used as a reference. It is an excellent resource book for that purpose. The key is to take this book into context within the tropic of innovation and ALL of the methods and tools available to innovation and design leaders. The book does have some legacy methods like Industry Diagnostics (Porter's Framework), SWOT, and Doblin. It also has references to gamification processes. Although it doesn't mention things like MURAL, Gamestorming, or Hyper Island it doesn't mean that they don't apply. They are excellent tools that would complement several of the artifact deliverables mentioned in the text. This book should be viewed as a resource along with all of the other possible resources you will discover on the topic to add to your library. As far as the review on the physical quality. My copy is just fine but, then again, I haven't gotten it wet yet... >)

As a consultant helping teams through innovation processes I found this book to be a wonderful compendium of frameworks and techniques to help focus ideas and processes. For a consultant or trainer in business or technology innovation this book provides a ready resource of methods that can be used to help uncover, unclutter or focus thinking. For teams on their own the book can be a ready resource to guide the innovation process; what to do next in innovating new products or services. The book proposes a seven step framework that helps you walk through the innovation modes: Sense intent, Know Context, Know People, Frame Insights, Explore concepts, Frame Solutions and Realize offerings. It goes into great depth for each mode providing method and technique that will help inspire new ways of thinking about how to approach an innovation challenge.

I used this book as course material for teaching a design research class. The book served as a great reference for the students when exploring different methodologies and research techniques. In general I would say it helps to have some background or understanding in qualitative research to get the most out of it as the book doesn't go into depth on specific subjects/methods but rather gives a broad overview of methods outlining the benefits/when to use. So if you are looking for a reference to help steer your projects in the right direction this is a great book. If you are looking for a how-to manual or a deep dive into research methods then I would suggest looking elsewhere.