Good For: Idea generation
The publisher defines Open Policy Making as developing and delivering policy in a fast-paced and increasingly networked and digital world through collaborative approaches, new analytical techniques, and testing and iteratively improving policy.
The manual includes information about Open Policy Making in the United Kingdom government as well as tools, step-by-step guidance and techniques policy makers can use to create more open and user led policy.
The mission of TEN is to ensure a scientifically and ethically responsible dissemination of applied behavioural insights throughout Europe and beyond. This is done through a range of Open Access (OA) online resources and member activities.
TEN hosts the Nudge Database, a community-sourced collection and validation system for cases of behavioural insights, including everything from interesting hypotheses to laws that have been applied on the basis of large randomised experiments.
The database is…
An collection of communication tools used in service design processes that deal with complex systems, organised by design activities, representations, recipients, and contents. The website is the result of the research activity done by Roberta Tassi during her graduation thesis investigating the relation between communication design and service design, starting from the observation of the existing practices in the field of service design.
Each tool contains a description, how-to instructions,…
A collection of design patterns, or ‘gambits’, for influencing user behaviour through design. It’s applicable across product, service, interaction and architectural design, aimed particularly at socially and environmentally beneficial behaviour change. The patterns are drawn from a range of disciplines, and are phrased as questions or provocations to enable the toolkit’s use as both a brainstorming tool and a guide for exploring the field of design for behaviour change.
It includes…
This set of service design resources includes a downloadable zip file of resources created by MrThinkr, such as templates, examples, and guidance on personas, journey mapping, and stakeholder mapping. The website contains video guidance on how to use these methods. In order to download the zip file, you must enter your email. The publisher is also marketing some paid software on their website.
This resource contains a framework and guidance regarding the use of user-centred design. The publisher defines the UCD process in six phases - two planning and four delivery phases. The two planning phases focus on typical project planning aspects such as problem space, resources, agency readiness, team logistics, governance, etc. The four delivery phases are about action, talking to users to understand their real needs, prototyping potential solutions, and building the minimum viable product…
Kickbox is an innovation process that Adobe developed for its own use and then open-sourced so everyone can use it. It is both a process for individuals and a system for deploying that process across an organization at scale. It’s designed to increase innovator effectiveness, accelerate innovation velocity, and measurably improve innovation outcomes. It can also optimize innovation investments by reducing costs compared to traditional approaches. Adobe distributed 1000 physical boxes…
This is a report produced in conjunction with IDEO after a 2-year initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation called Paper Prototyping, an effort to better inform investment decisions of the Foundation. While this resource is not a typical innovation toolkit, it was included because it describes an often implicit and invisible process of developing and testing proposals for innovative solutions to complex problems.
The Collective Action Toolkit (2nd edition) is a set of activities and methods that enables groups of people anywhere to organize, collaborate, and create solutions for problems affecting their community.
It guides users through methods according to six action areas, with suggested pathways from one method to the next. For each method, step-by-step instructions are given, in addition to the time, roles, and materials needed. Some methods include canvasses to guide activity.
The toolkit is…
The stated aim of the resource is to enable public sector organisations to use design management thinking and methods currently used by leading companies in the private sector. There is a library tools that are available for free (one must subscribe to access the case studies.) Many of these are commonly-used design methods which have been tweaked and re-branded as Shape Better Services resources. The library content is free to view but using their online guidance requires a paid subscription.









