Feb 8, 2025
Human-Centered Design: My Journey Through the LUMA Practitioner Course
In November 2024, I signed up for the LUMA Institute’s Human-Centered Design Practitioner course. As a creative, I often find myself operating in a space that demands logic, structure, and strategy which are all essential. But over time, I noticed how easy it is to lose touch with the creative side of problem-solving. I took the LUMA course because I wanted to:
Strengthen my workshop facilitation skills and become more confident guiding teams through design activities.
Explore tools that could help teams exercise imagination, not just efficiency.
Reignite the balance between creativity and logic in my day-to-day design work.
As creatives, we’re no strangers to design jams, critique sessions, and sticky note brainstorming, going around the room, sharing thoughts, and building on each other’s ideas. And yes, that works.
But I was looking for something more. A toolkit that could help unlock ideas more intentionally, bring diverse perspectives into the room, and create a more collaborative, energising process.
We started the course with a simple icebreaker where each of us created a digital character, added photos & icons of things we love, and shared why we took the HCD course. It was a fun way to connect and set the tone for the class.
Practical Methods, Not Just Theory
One thing I really appreciated was how tangible the methods were. These weren’t abstract design philosophies, they were activities you could run right away. Some of my favourites:
Rose, Thorn, Bud – a fast and powerful way to surface what’s working, what’s not, and what could be better.
What's on Your Radar? – a visual prioritisation tool that helps teams align on what matters now, what’s coming soon, and what’s worth watching in the distance. Instead of debating what’s “urgent” vs. “important,” this method lets everyone map it out clearly on a circular diagram with the center being the most immediate focus.
Alternative Worlds – a creative exercise that pushes you to explore wildly different contexts to break out of conventional thinking. Instead of asking "What should this product do?", you ask "What would this look like in a totally different world?".
Each method came with prompts, facilitation tips, and example use cases. I could see how they fit into my work.
Learning how to label clusters with more meaning and clarity. Our instructor guided us to go beyond just categorising and instead ask, what human insight are we really uncovering here?
Facilitation Learnings
Through LUMA, I learned that effective facilitation is less about driving outcomes and more about guiding the process. With the right pacing, visual tools, and active listening, we can create a collaborative space where ideas flow, everyone feels heard, and teams stay aligned.
Learn the methods and mechanics rather than focus on outputs & outcomes.
Pacing and Structure: LUMA techniques are designed to maintain momentum without overwhelming participants. Learn pacing techniques to keep activities flowing smoothly.
Active Listening: LUMA teaches facilitators how to create an environment of open communication, making participants feel heard and encouraging diverse contributions.
Visual Tools: Many LUMA techniques rely on visual mapping and clustering, which help participants see ideas in context and engage actively.
Applying the Tools at Work
I started using some of these methods in my day-to-day projects from reconsidering a problem by broadening or narrowing its focus for a client portal to planning improvements for certain components in the company's design system. The “Statement Starters” method helped reframe problem statements into open, solution-oriented prompts. Even simple activities like rose, thorn, bud and affinity clustering became more meaningful with the right framing.
Example of 'Abstraction Laddering' done with a scenario: We need to redesign our travel company website.
Example of 'What's on Your Radar' template.
What Changed for Me
This course reminded me that great design isn’t just about solving user problems, it’s also about creating shared understanding across teams.
I now have a go-to toolkit to clarify messy problems.
I feel more equipped to run workshops and involve stakeholders early.
I have more time designing with purpose.
Even now, months later, I’m still finding new ways to apply what I learned. 😃
Before starting a new session, our instructors would walk us through feedback from the previous lesson, highlighting key takeaways around collaboration, creativity, problem framing and what we enjoyed from the lesson. It helped us reflect, feel heard, and stay connected to the learning journey. Everyone looking too serious in a 9AM class… 😆
Practicing together with our instructor using 'What's on Your Radar?' method.
Final Thoughts
Taking the LUMA HCD course reminded me very clearly: design is a team sport.
Here are some key learnings I noted down even if we, as designers, already know some of these intuitively:
Learn approaches by putting the user needs first early in the exploration and concept phases.
Engage with colleagues to identify the problem before talking about solutions (If I don’t understand what is your problem, how can I implement for you the right solution?).
Balance user needs with business goals. Design should serve both people and purpose.
Different challenges require different approaches. We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome (There are many different approaches, know when to apply the right method is key).
Create experiences that make sense to people. Relevance matter.
Logic often takes over, sidelining creativity. We always have to be logical that it is knocking out the creative muscles in our brains.
We are rewarded for getting the optimal solution, losing creativity because we are boxed up with all the systems and processes to get the solution out. (HCD is transformative in training our brains to rediscover creativity by encouraging empathy, curiosity, and an iterative problem-solving mindset.)
Your learnings help each other’s learnings!
Reflect on where you can apply these learnings in your own context.
Facilitation is a skill, not a role. Everyone can facilitate meaningful conversations. It's about creating the space. Not holding the title.
I’m still learning, still practicing, and still figuring things out. Stay curious always. If you’re a designer, product manager, or anyone who works with people to build things, this course is worth exploring! ✌🏻
You can check out the link here: LUMA Institute
