desn2002bloga3

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Week 13 - Final Week!

Presentation week!!

Over the last week not much has changed, I personally have just been going over my slides and what I am going to say (more so that I don’t read off my slides and know what I’m saying for once).

From the first weeks, where we had to restart the wicked problem process all over again to this moment right now, I feel quite proud of not only us as individuals but us as a group. I have never had a group with so little conflict where we all completed our own roles to a decent standard. Lucky to say the least. 

As an overview from my personal growth on both a wicked problem and design thinking, I believe I have learnt quite a lot. I have a better understanding of the Design Thinking theory and the importance behind it. I also have learnt what a wicked problem is, how to understand it and how to work through it not only as an individual but in a group of people who I have just met. Overall, an awesome way to learn about both of these theories and an awesome way to make friends by working through a cool Wicked Problem. 

Finally, here is the video that a member from the group made to go towards our final assignment – enjoy and thank you for your time both reading and teaching a fun course! 

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Week 12:

Preparation for presentations:

Over the end of last week/the weekend, I had a good think about the data I had collected but wasn’t sure if it was enough for some concise evidence. So – put it to the group to make another survey, this time more focusing in on photo waypoints, what they are and how to use them. They all agreed it was a good idea so I went and make another. 

For this survey I ended up making some mock ups, because like me I find a lot of people have more interest in answering questions and learning if a visual stimulant is present. So below are some of the mock ups I made using the logos that one of the other group members designed. 

From the images, I got some better results. More people seemed to understand what photo waypoints were, and majority of people showed a decent amount of interest in possibly participating in them if they were to come across them. And following this, only 6% of people said that they would not consider posting the images they have taken on social media. This was important for us as a group and for our wicked problem as it supported our prototype and showed us it could certainly be a feasible idea for the museum to possible use to get more young people in their doors. 

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Week 11:

This week I did a bit of reflecting – from the first week to now. Wow the time has flow. At the start I didn’t understand the purpose of design thinking. I just thought it was this weird linear thing that was a waste of time and wouldn’t apply to anything I was doing. 

Wasn’t I wrong! 

From the start of working out what our wicked problem was, and working out who it would be affecting. I really learnt to empathise with both Lake Mac Museum as well as the individuals they desire to get into their exhibits – all while not relying on the Design Thinking theory outline. To then defining it – okay what are we going to do to help? We can’t design something that is going to cost them a lot of money, or one that requires them having full control of their social media. Photo opportunities!

Ideating and iterating ideas that would work for them. How can we actually make this viable? Who will come use it? What is the incentive?

Prototyping and testing – sending out surveys to the public and getting feedback from classmates and stakeholders has been key thus far. I know one of the other group members has sent out surveys to stakeholders of Lake Mac (just waiting for responses). This is key! Getting the feedback will make the world of difference to our end prototype.

Something to remember: Design thinking is a way of thinking. (Martin, R. 2012)

References:

Martin, R., & Euchner, J. (2012). Design thinking. Research-Technology Management, 55(3), 10–14. https://doi.org/10.5437/08956308x5503003 

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Week 10:

As a group this week we mainly were just focusing on our individual parts getting ready to bring them back together to show each other. We furthered on with our user journey (see image below) to try and hash out any other issues we may come across.

This week I also went over some of the data I had collected. It was interesting finding out individuals’ opinions and thoughts surrounding museums and if they had ever heard of a photo waypoint. The main issue I had when collating the data was that I didn’t have a huge collection of data from the ideal 15 -24-year age groups. Non the less it was still data. As K.B Wright (2006) stated, ‘Surveys provide access to unique populations and can save the researcher both time and money’. I think this was the best course of action for our group and wicked problem as it gave us a wide range of data, without costings anything to us and could happen behind the scenes while we continued working towards the end goal.

References:

Wright, K. B. (2006). Researching internet-based populations: Advantages and disadvantages of online survey research, online questionnaire authoring software packages, and web survey services. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(3), 00–00. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2005.tb00259.x 

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Week 9:

Rose, bud and thorns! No, I haven't quite lost it yet. That was the exercise we completed this week. Using our prototyping idea - implementing photo waypoints into the museum so that they have the ability to gain social media attraction without the need of having to be in control of all their own social media (which we know they do not, this is one of the main issues they spoke about when they came in a few weeks ago to a lecture). So as a group, we participated in the exercise, in the hopes to iron out any thorns we might have.

Starting by just jotting our ideas down, across the board we were all mainly concerned that there might not be enough attraction in the first place to get people into the museum. Pairing thorns with roses and buds makes thorns hurt less on the surface and be more embraced, rather than immediately dismissed. It’s that pairing with other types of feedback that begins to change the perception. (Riley, 2018).

As a group, I do not feel like we had much conflict come up. Because as a group we split up the roles evenly, I believe everyone feels like they are able to complete their jobs confidently and if they are unsure we are open enough to discuss it as a group.

After jotting down all the ideas, we re-grouped them to have the 'like' rose, thorns and buds put together. This helped us identify any issues or ideas we might have had as a collective group and put them all together. For us as a group, it actually showed we were all on the same page about majority of the solution to our wicked problem - winning!!

References:

Riley, S. (2018, December 18). Embrace the thorns: The power of examined design. Medium. https://uxdesign.cc/embrace-the-thorns-the-power-of-examined-design-6fe878e3fbed 

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Week 8:

We missed out on class this week due to ANZAC day, so decided on a time as a group to do a zoom call to go over our next steps for our solution to the wicked problem.

Unfortunately, only 3 of us made it to the zoom – none the less we worked on what was next!

We again created roles for all of us to work on, this time I put my hand up to get some statistics together to see what the public thought about museums and using/taking photos within them. So, I created a survey, asking the public if they had ever been to a museum, why they had and what was enticing about it that made them want to go? I also threw in the question of if anyone knows what a photo waypoint is. Unfortunately, only a few people in the select age group new, but all of them said they were willing to learn – bonus! In the zoom, we also went over the United Nations sustainability goals and which one(s) might apply to our Wicked Problem. Looking at #4 and possibly #17, they seem to be the ones that more align with our aims for our problem.

References:

United Nations. (2023). The 17 goals | sustainable development. United Nations. https://sdgs.un.org/goals 

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Week 7:

Quick update this week: we did our presentation! Woo!

The feedback was generally pretty positive, especially positive for group work. Honestly as a group I think we do work really well; we are all respective of our roles within the group and it all came together really nicely purely because we are all doing our jobs. We definitely needed to put more emphasis on a UN goal that our wicked problem relates to as well as display more of our design thinking methodology. Furthering from this, decided to go do some more reading on design thinking to gage a better understanding of it.

I think we struggle putting Design Thinking into practice as we are all too involved in our own processes, even if parts do align with the theory. We need to take a step back and evaluate how we take each step, and why it may align with it.

Design thinking is acknowledged as a thriving innovation practice plus something more, something in the line of a deep understanding of innovation processes (Plattner et.al, 2018)

References:

Plattner, H., Meinel, C., & Leifer, L. (2018). Design thinking research: Making distinctions: Collaboration versus cooperation. Springer International Publishing. 

Stanford Graduate School. (2016, April 21). What is design thinking?. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnWj97CEjeo 

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Week 6:

This week we were making sure we were prepared for our presentation for next week. My components for the presentation are the benefits to the community as well as the user journey.

Over the last week, I have created a more in-depth user journey (as seen below).

Honestly, at the start I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. I didn’t understand it and didn’t understand how it would help. Using one the video below, and a blog I found a little more understanding of how it works. 

"Once you fully understand your customer's experience with your business, you can delight them at every stage...Many factors can affect this journey, including customer pain points, emotions, and your company's touchpoints and processes. A customer journey map is the most effective way to visualize this information, whether you're optimizing your journey for the customer or exploring a new business opportunity to serve a customer's unrecognized needs." (Agius, 2023)

Reading the blog and watching the video was important for my understanding on how to create an efficient customer journey map. I now understood that I need to get in the shoes of our persona and experience all steps of the process exactly how I believe she would see it. Creating it to see where our flaws may lay so I can take it back to the group and we can work through them so our solution to our wicked problem is the most efficient it can be. 

References:

Agius, A. (2023, May 4). How to create an effective customer journey map [examples + template]. HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-journey-map 

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Week 5:

Now finally having our group sorted, we got on with the work. Creating a word document together, it was the best way to keep everyone accountable for their roles within the group as well as keeping track of everything.

After reading Why Design Thinking Works, the statement “Organized processes keep people on track and curb the tendency to spend too long exploring a problem or to impatiently skip ahead.” (Lidtka, 2018). Resonating with this, I was determined to keep the group plotting along in an organised manner as creating too many ideas may generate conflict or confusion within the group.

This week we also looked more at creating a customer journey map, as a group creating a persona “Anne” and their journey through our possible solution to our wicked problem. I did struggle at the start seeing the value in creating this, but after some further reading, I found the value in creating a journey map. By producing journey maps that illustrate an optimal customer experience, we enable stakeholders and executives to identify, prioritize, and maintain focus on the changes that matter (Flom, 2011).

References:

Flom, J. (2011, September 7). The value of Customer Journey Maps: A UX designer’s personal journey. UXmatters. https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/09/the-value-of-customer-journey-maps-a-ux-designers-personal-journey.php 

Liedtka, J. (2018, September 18). Why design thinking works. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/09/why-design-thinking-works 

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Change of Pace

So I guess I better update this! 

Week 3: We started off in our group of 5, everything was working well and starting to hash out jobs for everyone to complete and discussing which direction we would all like to go to complete our wicked problem. Then everything went downhill…

Some of our group members had just found out that they no longer were enrolled into this class and had to jump off ship. 

So now it was down to 2! We started discussing what we could do to get people our age into the museum. Coming up with an idea for an AI generated simulation where individuals would get to interact with exhibits and feel like they are fully immersed. I began doing some desk research to find out what else exists out there, and as a team decided I would stick to more of the design/research type rolls as that is where my strengths lie. 

Week 4: This is the week I am currently writing this, as I haven’t gone in this week due to the wonderful flu. As I forgot to recap last week and found out that this process is a little all over the place, from here on have decided to just do blog updates as we complete different processes on out wicked problems. My group member from last week too also updated me and found us some new group members, letting me know that next week we will further discuss our plan for solving our wicked problem. 

Because I wasn’t in class this week, and lacked research last week, I’ve done a bit of watching/listening about wicked problems and how to approach them. I found a TED talk with Tom Wujec, discussing a Wicked Problem. And guess what he discusses – how to make toast!! It was actually very interesting, I thought I understood why we went through that process, but it turns out I didn’t understand the full intent behind it. The way he explains it was incredible, and how it links to the process of hidden features of a Wicked Problem. 

Explaining that the process of doing this either in a big corporate company, or in small individual groups is "a way to get us clear, engaged and aligned ideas...If next time you're stuck on a design, make your ideas visible, tangible and consequential". The simplicity of this idea makes any wicked problem seem simple to solve if we take it step my step and lay it all out in front of us.

References:

Wujec, T. (2015, February 5). Tom Wujec: Got a wicked problem? First, tell me how you make toast. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vS_b7cJn2A 

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Week 2

Starting off the week, being proactive and reading the short reads suggested within the week two folder, I think have begun to have a better understanding of design thinking and what is expected of me whilst going through its processes. However, I struggled when I first was reading about design thinking. Before you begin to read the articles suggested, or any that reference Design Thinking, you are faced with an illustration that depicts a linear thinking style. How am I meant to adhere to this and follow something so structured? What even is my design process? So many questions! 

I found the Interaction Design Foundation. *Deep breath taken* Dam (2022) states that Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process…the article focusing on the five-stage design thinking model proposed by the Hasson Plattner Institute Design at Stanford. What are the five steps? The D.School outlines the five steps to be empathise, define, ideate, prototype and test. Stepping out the processes doesn’t make it seem so scary now.

Figure 1

Today we had tutorials, first task was to get into groups with people with different creative abilities. Placing our initials on a sticky note, we wrote down our programs and creative passions. Once we had our group of 5, we went over the wicked problem list that we were able to pick one from, and started filling out our contract for collaboration. 

References:

Unknown. (2022, July 12). What is design thinking?. The Interaction Design Foundation. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/design-thinking (Figure 1)

Dam, R. F. (2022, June 3). The 5 stages in the design thinking process. The Interaction Design Foundation. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/5-stages-in-the-design-thinking-process 

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DESN2002 - Week 1

Well, well, well… here we are - back to another semester at university! Week one for Design Thinking was certainly interesting. Starting the week off with the lecture, we were introduced to what design thinking is all about. Having completed some of the readings recommended I had a brief understanding of what we were discussing. I found reading the IDEO Design Thinking article quite interesting. The CEO Tim Brown (2018) has stated that Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology and the requirements for business success. This put it quite simply for me – this is important! This will help me for my future in the creative industry not only while I’m at university but also in the professional workplace. So let the learning begin!

Following this up in our first tutorial, we were tasked with drawing the process of making toast. Only able to use images, arrows and limited use of numbers it seemed challenging.

So off I go, drawing what I think to be the process of toast (fig. 1). Figure 2 displays the step where we had to condense it to the least number of sticky notes possible. Next, figure 3 displays teamwork – wow I know! We ended up getting into groups and collaborating without speaking, finding similarities within our sticky notes to overall create the process of making toast. During the process, I think it was hard to see the point of drawing each part. But looking back on this, you can understand that it was designed to kick start our design thinking without us even knowing as well as learning how to communicate in a group of new individuals. Design is really a process of making impact on the world by doing this kind of creation of something new to the world and then getting it out there. (Solomon, 2012)

Week 1 Bibliography:

Brown, T. (2018). IDEO design thinking. IDEO. https://designthinking.ideo.com/ 

Solomon, A. (2012, September 23). Design thinking for social good: An interview with David Kelley. Boing Boing. https://boingboing.net/2012/09/22/design-thinking-for-social-goo.html