August 6th, 2009 - Designing business solutions for bottom of the pyramid markets just got a little easier. IDEO has made their Human Centered Design Toolkit, a road map through clear design thinking that’s full of their time tested methods, available for download.

While IDEO already has sharing in its blood, more socially and environmentally minded organizations are moving toward sharing information in open source models instead of keeping new developments and innovative ways of thinking under proprietary wraps.

By sharing the Human Centered Design (HCD) Toolkit, IDEO means to help NGOs and social enterprises work more effectively in impoverished communities of the global south to address social problems in financially sound ways. The method can be useful to any group designing for social impact, however. Essentially, by putting people at the heart of it, and making clear design thinking accessible to non-designers, the toolkit can help infuse the whole process of deciding “what to do” with innovation.

The method, a distillation of IDEO’s process, makes space to listen and collaborate with communities using accessible language. This helps drive better understanding of people’s real needs which in turn drives more innovative and sustainable business solutions. Some of the results have been the HeartStart defibrillator, Cleanwell natural antibacterial products, and the Blood Donor System for the Red Cross, which have improved millions of human lives.

The toolkit itself is intended to be a work in progress and IDEO will incorporate feedback from users into the next iteration. You can find the HCD Toolkit, developed with the support of the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, on IDEO.