01 / PURPOSE
UN Sustainable
Development Goals
Which social and environmental priorities should shape the brief? Select the relevant goals, then agree what evidence the project will need.
UN framework ↗METHOD
See clearly.
Build lean.
Validate early.
Understand the brief. Test the layout or prototype.
Resolve key decisions before committing to the build.
FRAMEWORKS / THREE LENSES
Three frameworks.
Practical questions.
Three frameworks guide the questions, decisions and learning that help a project reach the right outcome.UN Sustainable
02 / STRUCTURE
RIBA
Plan of Work
What needs to be resolved, by whom and when? Use the stages to organise decisions, responsibilities and information from the first brief into use.
RIBA framework ↗03 / EXPLORATION
Design
Thinking
Are we solving the right problem for the people involved? Listen, reframe, explore alternatives and test small prototypes with real people. Refine what you learn.
Design thinking / IDEO ↗THE PRS METHOD
A clear brief.
A tested design.
Each stage answers a practical question before the project commits more time and money.- 01
Understand the brief
Visit the place, listen to its users and establish what needs to work better.
- 02
Agree the priorities
Set out what matters, what is fixed and what the project needs to achieve.
- 03
Connect the details
Map how people, space, services, cost and programme affect each other.
- 04
Test before committing
Use a sketch, model or mock-up to check an idea with the people who will use it.
- 05
Deliver and learn
Coordinate the specialists, develop the information and review how the finished work is used.
THE HANDOVER
What we need.
What you get.
Observation · stakeholder evidence · data · constraints · specialist knowledge
An agreed brief · tested ideas · clear responsibilities · delivery priorities · feedback from use
METHOD IN PRACTICE / WORKING DRAWINGS, 2022
From a first sketch
to the longer view.
A process made visible, then mapped against time. Original working material shows how the plan develops.
01 / 04
Start with the relationships.
A hand sketch brings people, pressures and missing voices into view. The first task is to understand what is connected.
Working plans show the process at different points in its development; dates reflect those versions. Open the detailed working programme (PDF) ↗
MAKE THE COMPLEX USABLE