24.09.15
Design Challenge & Feedback
Define/Ideate/Empathy/Exchange/Mock-up
We had a talk from Thinkplace about design thinking and innovation, we then participated in a 30 minute design challenge before receiving individual feedback from teachers.
Reflection:
Thinkplaces key points were talking the need to really go to the places, or the people involved and listen to what they have say, building empathy is key to getting down to the real problems to create a real social change.
The 30 minute exercise was a really good way of putting all the things Thinkplace said into action, even if only in a basic sense. I found myself wearing my "black hat" a lot of the time and constantly came up with barriers around resources to make ideas happen and i don't feel that i know enough of the logistics around some of the services available in New Zealand to be able to accurately brainstorm solutions for this type of problem.
The feedback i received from tutors and peers told me that my app itself is getting closer, with only minor tweaks here and there. The main focus now is on the before stage of the users journey. I'm in the process of creating a visual language and rhetoric for some posters and other print media. The mock-ups i produced over the week are on the right track and ill continue to develop the rhetoric and start to push it into the design of a website and my apps aesthetic.
1.09.15
User Testing & Prototyping
Define/Ideate/Empathy/Exchange/Mock-up
We went over our POV statements and synthesized our BIG Idea
Reflection:
I have spent a lot of time focusing on the app and not the experience as a whole. after some feedback and reflection i know i need to consider my audiences motivation for using my app, the BEFORE experience will be a key aspect and i need to figure out a visual language and touch points to engage my audience.
17.09.15
User Testing & Prototyping
Define/Ideate/Empathy/Exchange/Mock-up
Our lecture today was about empathy and its importance in design. Class was spent prototyping, testing and Iterating.
Reflection:
The user testing was a good source of feedback and helped solidify some of the basic concepts and game me direction on where to go with the others. i think my focus now should be on the before stage of the process, how to do people hear about my app? what convinces them to use it?
10.09.15
Exchange
Ideate/Empathy/Exchange
Reflection:
This exchange was more valuable than the last one, especially since the group actually showed up. I received similar feedback for my storyboard, which is promising because it means that the idea is solid even to people who are not familiar with vcd projects. I asked them what they would want out of it if they were to be using it and they gave a couple of specific things that would be valuable to them and good things for me to consider moving forward.
11.09.15
Rapid Prototyping
Define/Ideate/Empathy/Exchange/Mock-up
We started with a talk about prototyping, its benefits and versatility to our process as designers. We Then had several iterations of rapid prototyping and user testing of our initial ideas to get the ball rolling and test hunches.
Reflection:
The rapid prototyping turned out to be pretty valuable and really helped solidify my idea, that is that people would use it and find it helpful. My first prototype didn't get a good response, the group using it didn't fully understand the idea in itself and gave me the advice to "design the experience, not the interface".
So i did just that and made a story board of a few students using app in the context. This iteration received a far greater response. I gave no information about my project before i let them read my storyboard and they repeated my idea back to me perfectly. They proceeded to give me a few ideas and variations about the project that i can consider and test out over the week.
10.09.15
Remember the 5 Ways
Define/Ideate/Empathy
We started with a lecture on design provocations, specifically some real world examples of projects similar to ours. In studio we presented our ideas that we came up with over the break, and then filtered them through the five ways of well-being to help evaluate them.
Reflection:
During the presentation i realized that everybody is at very different stages and seems to have different expectations on what the exact requirements for this paper are, makes for a lot of second guessing and feedback that comes from a place your project might not be at. I feel like a lot of my feedback was pushing to broaden the range of issues i should be tackling, instead of focusing on the issues i identified through interviews, which feels like a wrong move to me.
Putting our ideas into the 'five ways' was a good way of breaking it up to see the areas i was covering and those i was not. It really helped to frame and remind me of what things i should be focused on when thinking about my ideas. At this stage im feeling a bit confused about where im supposed to be at with my idea.
07.09.15
Research & Empathy
Define/Ideate/Empathy
Over the study break i completed another round of interviews with improved questions and ability to pick up on and follow through on certain topics that came up. following this i repeated the SLIP exercise with post it notes and used the results to generate POV statements and HMW questions before idea generation.
Reflection:
Doing a second round of interviews after learning from my first round was a big help for me because i was able to focus my questions more to achieve better answers and discussion. I was also prepared for certain answers and pushed further when they came up. Ultimately i ended up with a far greater range of results and more fleshed out answers.
The new research made the SLIP and HMW exercises far more valuable to me. i was able to generate 3 POV statements that cover the 3 biggest issues i identified and used those to generate my HMW questions. Both of these really helped me flesh out and identify specific angles of approach and specific ideas and issues related to them.
