_posts/2015-08-10-18f-design-methods.md
---
title: "Introducing 18F Design Methods"
date: 2015-08-10
layout: post
authors:
- jeremy
- colinmacarthur
- bradnunnally
- jthibault
- russ
tags:
- open source
- how we work
- guides
- design
excerpt: "We’re thrilled to introduce the beta deck of 18F Design
Methods, a collection of research and design
practices that we use to better understand and serve the users of our
products."
description: "We’re thrilled to introduce the beta deck of 18F Design
Methods, a collection of research and design
practices that we use to better understand and serve the users of our
products."
image: /assets/blog/design-method-cards/method-cards-banner.jpg
---
We’re thrilled to introduce the beta deck of [18F Design
Methods](https://methods.18f.gov/), a collection of research and design
practices that we use to better understand and serve the users of our
products.
It's amazing to think that this project started off as something folks
did in their spare time — those odd minutes between meetings and at the
end of the day — and to see how far it has come. What began as an
opportunity for 18F to communicate more clearly across teams turned into
something a little bigger. We realized that gathering and organizing our
design methods could help us keep improving our shared understanding of
how we work together.
We realized, too, that these practices could benefit groups beyond 18F:
our partners and clients within the federal government, state-level
agencies practicing user-centered design, startups and businesses
everywhere, and people interested in learning these techniques.
Encouraged by the value this collection of methods can offer (and the
further learning we hope they'll spark), we're sharing them as broadly
as we can.
## How we got started
When the research guild — a group of 18F’s user experience researchers
and designers — first conceptualized these Design Methods, we had no
idea what the project would become. The undertaking started as a
“hackathon” project (something to be completed within a day or two) but
evolved to become a four-month project with a rotating cast of team
members contributing their efforts.
We hoped the finished product would do the following:
- Offer an easy introduction to some of our favorite research and design methods to everyone who’s interested (inside and outside 18F).
- Create a shared vocabulary across designers and project teams, and eventually (we hope) across the federal government.
- Show how government agencies — including those without dedicated design teams — can do quick, comparatively low-cost user research to understand what citizens need while respecting federal regulations, like the [Privacy Act](http://www.justice.gov/opcl/overview-privacy-act-1974-2015-edition) and the [Paperwork Reduction Act](http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-104publ13/html/PLAW-104publ13.htm).
- Remove barriers that prevent designers from including tested methods into their design process.
- Provide just enough guidance to give designers the confidence to put a method into practice.
## How they were made
The project was born from the realization that, while some of our team
members have extensive knowledge of design methods, others have no idea
where to start. Our initial intent was to create a tool to help people
become more conversant in common design practices and start practicing
them. Often knowing that a method exists, what it’s intent is, and how
it’s done is enough to get started.
To understand how method cards might help product teams, we conducted
one-on-one interviews with design leads across roughly 10 projects. We
asked them about the techniques they used and any changes they’d made to
enable these to work within government. We also spoke with developers
and product managers to get an understanding of how they thought about
the design and research they conducted.
Constantly shipping products and testing them out is part of how we
work, so right away we designed and printed several
[prototype](https://methods.18f.gov/prototyping/) sets of alpha
(initial-stage) method cards to get some quick feedback on our concept.
The cards sat around our D.C. and San Francisco offices with signs
asking colleagues to try them out and send us their feedback. We also
conducted a few more formal [usability
tests](https://methods.18f.gov/usability-testing/) of the card decks,
which led to some changes in the beta version.
Beyond learning what people thought of the cards, we wanted to see how
receiving a set would change people’s behavior. To find this out, we ran
18F’s first randomized, controlled experiment to measure how receiving a
set of method cards affected people's knowledge and comfort with our
design methods. Our research showed that 18F teammates who received
cards were slightly more knowledgeable and comfortable with methods than a
control group whose members didn’t receive cards. (We’ll report more on
this in a future blog post — stay tuned.)
## Get your own deck
**Check out the [method cards online](https://methods.18f.gov/) for more information.** Our “alpha” digital version provides more details about each method, short stories about how we’ve used a given method in our work, and links to additional resources.
[](https://methods.18f.gov/)
## Principles that are and are not here
Every project has a different design process. Our method cards respect
that. We’re purposely **not** offering a suggested order or set of
methods. Rather, we’d like users to think of these cards as a palette of
methods to pick and choose from. Both the online and print versions of
the cards are grouped into phases. These aren’t a set of steps each our
projects goes through sequentially, but modes that every projects goes
in and out of. Bottom line: Use the cards in whatever way yields the
greatest benefit to your team.
There are several excellent decks of method cards out there, but none
that we have found are tailored to doing design work in the government.
Our cards offer guidance to anyone in the federal government wanting to
do user-centered design. For the most part, the processes we use are the
same as those used in the private sector. However, we have additional
considerations, legal and otherwise. To stay on the happy side of the
law, take a look at [Recruiting](https://methods.18f.gov/recruiting/),
[Incentives](https://methods.18f.gov/incentives/), [Informed
consent](https://methods.18f.gov/informed-consent/),
[Privacy](https://methods.18f.gov/privacy/), and the [Paperwork
Reduction Act](https://methods.18f.gov/paperwork-reduction-act/). No
matter which methods we work with, these are the
[fundamentals](https://methods.18f.gov/fundamentals/) of our design
research.
Like everything we do at 18F, our method cards are entirely open source.
That means you can [clone, fork, modify, and
improve](https://github.com/18F/methods) both the online and physical
versions of the cards. If you have access to InDesign, you can also
[customize our
template](https://methods.18f.gov/assets/downloads/18F-Method-Cards-beta-Template.zip)
to fit your own needs and make your own card set. We can’t wait to see
what you do with them!
## What’s next
It’s our sincere hope that people will freely take and use the method
cards we’ve created. Our team put a lot of care into this first release,
and we look forward to collecting feedback that will help us continue
the effort and allow us to improve our work as we go. We know we
couldn’t include everything in this version — in fact, we’re just
getting started. We’re incredibly proud of what our project team has
researched, crafted, tested, and improved upon. Everyone pitched in when
they could, and the output is something we are all proud of.
To share your feedback with us, [open an
issue](https://github.com/18F/method-cards/issues) or pull request on
our [GitHub repository](https://github.com/18F/method-cards). We’d
love to hear how we could make the method cards even more useful to you.
Project team:
- [Jeremy Canfield](https://18f.gsa.gov/team/jeremy/)
- [Elizabeth Goodman](https://18f.gsa.gov/team/egoodman/)
- [James Hupp](https://18f.gsa.gov/team/jameshupp/)
- [Jeannine Hunter](https://18f.gsa.gov/team/jhunter/)
- [Colin MacArthur](https://18f.gsa.gov/team/colinmacarthur/)
- [Andrew Maier](https://18f.gsa.gov/team/andrewmaier/)
- [Brad Nunnally](https://18f.gsa.gov/team/bradnunnally/)
- [Jennifer Thibault](https://18f.gsa.gov/team/jthibault/)
- [Russ Unger](https://18f.gsa.gov/team/russ/)
- [Victor Zapanta](https://18f.gsa.gov/team/victor/)