Organizations use design to leverage their goals, and design-led processes help ensure that the technological solution will resonate and engage with its users.
The tools designers use and the challenges they solve go outside of software, connecting directly with users where they are. 8th Light's world-class design team recently joined Coding Black Females for an outstanding presentation that explored the critical partnership between developers and designers.
Coding Black Females (CBF) is a UK-based nonprofit organization that provides opportunities for Black female developers around the globe to upskill themselves, network, and build relationships through education and regular meetups.
CBF partners with dozens of leading organizations, and they provide multiple educational courses and opportunities for their members to develop their skills as well as their professional networks. 8th Light is one of many community and talent partner organizations that offer mentorship, resources, and networking opportunities.
A recent presentation given to the CBF team featured 8th Light’s design director Mary Burton and principal designer Agustin Sanchez, and showcased their experience leveraging design best practices to guide a product through its entire life cycle — starting from long before code is written. I’ve embedded a copy of the slides in this article.
The presentation covered the design thinking process, and how teams can structure projects to optimize for human-centered outcomes. The design thinking process follows six stages that are broken into three themes. Designers empathize and define the problem in order to understand the problem’s full context; they ideate and prototype to explore potential solutions; and they test and implement to help the solution materialize.
This event was scheduled to educate and further mentor and the membership at CBF to continue their pursuits in Software and to integrate Design-led thinking. If you are interested in 8th Light holding a similar session within your organization, please reach out. You can also learn more about becoming a part of Coding Black Females.