Best Practices for Using 3I Model

Following are some best practice you can follow while using The 3I model of IDEO:

1. Empathy:

For The 3I model of IDEO, you must empathize with your target customers. Use techniques like ethnographic research, contextual inquiry, and participatory design to gain insights into their lived experiences, emotions, and behaviors. These insights will help you design a better product for them.

2. Encourage Divergent Thinking:

During the Ideation phase, create an environment that fosters creativity and embraces unconventional ideas. Use techniques like brainstorming, mind mapping, and bodystorming to allow divergent thinking inside the team.

3. Iterate and Prototype:

Use rapid prototyping and user testing to continuously refine and improve your solutions. Start with low fidelity prototypes to validate core concepts, and gradually increase fidelity as the design evolves.

4. Collaborate with stakeholders:

Involve stakeholders from various disciplines, such as engineering, marketing, and business, to ensure a well rounded perspective and smooth implementation. Collaboration enables cross pollination of ideas and helps identify potential roadblocks early on.

5. Encourage Experimentation:

Encourage a mindset of experimentation and risk taking within your design team. Celebrate failures as learning opportunities and create an environment where designers are not discouraged to explore unconventional ideas.

Design thinking frameworks are a great way to ensure that the design team is following a proper design thinking process before you can move on to working on the actual design. The 3I model for design is one such design thinking framework created by IDEO which is a renowned international design firm founded by David Kelley in 2008. The 3I framework for design outlines the three key phases of the design process – inspiration to understand people, ideation to generate ideas, and implementation. The model was developed in the year 2001 and back then it was created to focus on innovation for social purposes but now it is widely considered as a great design thinking framework for any project. In this article, we will discuss what the 3I model for design is and what are some best practices around it.