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Assessment One: Personal Reflection
Design Thinking in short, is a process for creative problem solving. Design Thinking is understood as a way of thinking which leads to transformation, evolution and innovation, to new forms of living and to new ways of managing business (Tschimmel, 2012). Although, it is hard to narrow down the definition of design thinking as “Multiple models of design thinking have emerged” (Dorst 2011). The world has many different interpretations of what Design Thinking is but throughout this course, I have learnt the fundamentals of the processes which can be broken down into 5 phases; Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. As a group, we used a powerpoint to display these phases in a detailed yet simple way to share our experiences and knowledge.
1) From the literature what were the key theoretical design concepts or practices that you applied in your design thinking project? How effective were they? Why were they or were they not effective? What did you learn from applying them and how did that learning inform your applied project?
As a group, we applied multiple practices in our design thinking project, one of which is prototyping. As Tschimmel (2012) states, prototyping is another way of visualising and testing new solutions, and thus is a principal, and tool, of Design Thinking. As a group, we only introduced prototyping towards the end of the semester as we finally gathered a range of ideas to take to the prototyping stage. We found this stage very effective to “generate useful feedback and evolve an idea” (Brown 2008). One thing about this stage I found challenging was managing to get the idea from my head, into a solid form or drawing because it seems like a good idea until you try to make it work in a practical form. For example one of our ideas to help communication in a natural disaster was to fly a helicopter which dropped coloured powder according to what steps needed to be taken next, we got to the prototyping stage and hit a few bumps. What would happened if it rained? Would the powder turn to liquid? Would it create more mess than before hand?
We learned that these are the types of questions we only realised during the prototyping stage which is why this stage is so vital. Another good point about prototyping is that Brown (2008) states, it doesn't have to be complex and expensive, which is ideal for us students who do not have much money and resources that others may have.
Another theoretical concept in which we applied to our design thinking project is Ideation, which is one of the first phases in the process. Ideation is the process of generating, developing, and testing ideas that may lead to solutions, as Brown (2008) suggests. As a group, I personally think we used this phase effectively and wisely to brainstorm and come up with ideas. The Ideate phase is “what people most commonly associate with design – it is the phase where as many ideas as possible are generated and experimented with” (Resilio Studio 2017). This stage was really beneficial to help us gain stronger insights because as Resilio Studio (2017) states, no idea is too small or ‘out there’ at this phase in the process. As a group, came up with many ideas, some crazy, some more refined, which really helped us widen our thoughts and think outside the box. We generated ideas through a range of mediums, for example audio recordings, written notes and drawings.
2) Describe a significant experience, either challenging or particularly meaningful, from your applied project including what you were doing, how you felt while doing it and what you could have done to change or improve the desired outcome(s). How has the literature contributed to your understanding of this experience? What have you learned from the experience and how has it influenced you as a designer?
For me a significant experience would have been visiting Auckland Council and interviewing Matthew Bramhall. The aim of this interview was to get an understanding as to how the city council would act in an uncertainty of a natural disaster like an earthquake or tsunami to which New Zealand is heavily prone.
Group member Rishabh and I met at the Auckland Council office and were taken to the Emergency Management office with 5 other students. Bramhall told us his role as the duty officer and explained that he always carries multiple mobile phones on him in case of an emergency. Bramhall explained the actions he and others would take in the event of an emergency. During the interview, I was intrigued at what he had to say, his explanations helped me gain insights and information for my own person studies.
This part of our project is the Discover Phase which is described as a “knowledge gathering exercise which collects material from a range of sources and through a range of techniques including first hand research” Resilio Studio (2017). One positive side of this interview was we got to listen to what other students asked which also helped me with my own research too. Even though I had pre planned my questions to ask, reflecting back on it now, I have come up with so many more questions which would have benefitted me with my research.
I really enjoyed this discover phase and I'm glad I got to be amongst the ones who had this experience. I used the information I gathered, to help the group with our powerpoint project and wrote down as many notes as I could during the interview to share back with the upon meet up. I made sure I recorded the entire interview with Bramhall so I could sit down and slowly go through his words to pin point the useful information and discard the information I did not want to interpret. This was a step that I would use for future projects because it is beneficial to break down chunks of information and take them in at your own speed.
3) What key qualities or characteristics associated with effective designers, based on the literature, have you demonstrated in the design process? Describe what you did, how you felt while doing it and why you did it. How effective were you? What could you have improved on? What would you do differently next time and why?
From reading the literature, I found a few key characteristics in which myself and the group applied in our project. Owen (2007) states that a key aspect is the ability to visualise ideas. We definitely utilised this aspect within our group project as it was one thing we could all relate to, as communication was difficult due to language barriers. We used drawings, brainstorms and photographs to engage everyone and ensure everyone understood the ideas and plans rather than trying to communicate the message across verbally. “Sketches and models clarify the characteristics of the product” (Razzouk & Shute 2012). We learnt that by using this technique, we could understand exactly what we were trying to get across. As Tschimmel (2012) says, the act of visualising their thoughts seems to clarify designers’ ideas.
On the other hand, another key aspect Owen (2007) states, is the Ability to use language as a tool. “Designers should be able to verbally explain their creative process forcing invention where detail is lacking” (Owen 2007). I personally found this aspect difficult in some ways as again, language barriers were a challenge. As english is not the first language for two of our group members, we had to take this into consideration. Verbal communication worked in some ways, to describe simple ideas but not when trying to describe deeper plans which encouraged us to resort to the first aspect of visualising ideas.
Another design thinking characteristic that Owen (2007) described is the Affinity for teamwork. He feels that designers need to develop interpersonal skills that allow them to communicate across disciplines and work with other people. Personally I think this was a big aspect that I struggled with towards the end of this semester. This was due to members of my group being absent which really made working as a team difficult. In majority of classes at least 2 of our members wouldn't show up which raised challenges with workloads and getting tasks done. This is one vital thing that we could have improved on if we were to do this task again. Overall, I found that the readings had direct links to our project, and it was easy for me to connect the literature to our tasks, this made the overall project a bit easer to understand and get my head around.
Throughout this course, I have learned the fundamentals of design thinking, and broken down each phase. I learned that each phase has a number of approaches, strategies, tools and methods that can be utilised to resolve the issues and opportunities that arise in each phase. I have connected the readings with my project and made vital links between them, I enjoyed discovering alternate ways to approach stages and ideas and listening to other class members approaches.
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