Dish Two: Thoughts On the Design Thinking Bootcamp

 

Hello and welcome back!  Today, I'll be serving up my reflections from our class' Design Thinking Bootcamp---our goal was to create a new type of phone that could solve a frustrating problem our partner was experiencing with their current model.  For context, I had to meet with my partner over Zoom due to Covid-19, so I had a bit of a unique experience!  

Reflections From Day One

DISCOVERING the problem

I actually found the discover portion to be the most challenging part of the Design Thinking process, but this was largely due to the fact that typing back-and-forth within the Zoom chat feature was time-consuming and frustrating.  It was too loud in the classroom to hear well from just using our computer speakers, so we couldn't think of a better method at the time.  However, I think crafting a better virtual discovery process is important.  What if we (God forbid) end up in another pandemic and are unable to host interviews in person?  What if we want to speak with people around the country but don't have the time or funds to visit many of them?

What I wish we had done is turned the closed captioning feature on.  This way, we could communicate faster since we would be verbally talking, but if we continued to have difficulty hearing we could always just read the captions.  Hindsight is always 20/20, I guess!

On left side: Zoom closed captioning settings; On right side: Zoom chat feature

DEFINING the problem

I really wish I could have had double the time defining the problem because I had a really difficult time describing the user.  For whatever reason, I was kind of narrow-minded and kept describing her as simply a "college student" or a "college senior."  But the truth is, this phrase barely gives any information...it doesn't help anyone get an idea of who she is.  It wasn't until the timer rang that it occurred to me I should say more.  For example, the fact that she's an English major is pretty important...the abundance of reading and writing her academic program requires helps give context as to why it's important for her to be able to hold her phone for long periods of time without a throbbing wrist.       

Refections From Day Two

CREATING the prototype

The creation stage was my favorite because it felt very judgement-free!  I knew all of our prototypes were going to be wacky---we were making them out of materials like Play-Dough, paper clips, and pipe cleaners, after all---so I could put my energy into simply communicating the value of my idea, not making it "perfect."  We applauded each other for our sincere efforts, and laughed when our creations started to fall apart.  And I realized that this atmosphere is the kind of atmosphere I want in a job.  I want to be able to share ideas in a space where people will give me honest feedback, but also be supportive, encouraging, and good-humored.

EVALUATING the prototype 

Sharing our prototypes with the class was fun (well, actually, I did not share with the whole class because I was losing my voice due to a cold), but I think it would've been interesting to bring our designs to a table anonymously and have people give thoughts on them.  Students could try to guess what functions the designs serve, what they like/don't like about them, etc., and then the designers could reveal the true intents.

Depiction of designs being placed anonymously for students to guess their functions

All in all, the bootcamp was a set of exciting class periods, despite my partner being over Zoom.  I hope we do the bootcamp again at the end of the semester so I can see how I've improved at each process, especially after learning the four stages in deeper detail.  Goodbye until next time!