My First Design Jam

Ashwin B
Ashwin B
Sep 9, 2018 · 4 min read

Alright, I am going to use the term and I don’t want anybody to freak out…

AI.

Alright, so far so good… or bad. AI can be used for good or bad. Especially when looking at businesses that use AI for ad-based platforms they rely on for profit…


That was the start of my presentation at the end of my first design jam.

What is a Design Jam?

These events can be like hackathons, coming in different shapes and sizes. They offers a hands-on experience in running through the design cycle, by developing an idea to solve a given prompt.

The design-thinking cycle or human-centered design focuses on the person experiencing the problem and creating solutions around those experiences.

In 7 hours, we formed teams, participated in a human-centered design workshop and formed a solutions for one of two prompts. Also, there was pizza. As a design student, I had an understanding of the concepts involved but the event served as a great recap and opportunity for meeting students outside of my discipline.

What we did

After watching a TED Talk about improv and forming teams, we chose the prompt we were interested in working on.

Chosen Prompt:

What solutions can we propose to free our attention from the clutches of powerful [AI] tools like AlphaGo so that we can “want what we want to want” (Harry Frankfurt)?

My Role: Throughout the process, I acted as the facilitator in my team to encourage ideas, keep time and help us focus on our user and goals.

Outcome: It’s hard not to get distracted online when using platforms that have AI powered ads/recommendations (ex. YouTube). My team focused on empowering students to have more control over their attention when studying online. Our concept was “A-eye”, a browser-based plugin/extension that allows students to set an intent (ex. studying calculus) and filters AI generated content that is not relevant.

Paper Prototype: “A-eye” extension in browser

Our Process

Understand

We chose to design for a university student (our persona), since we could empathize most with other students. We looked at how engagement and ad platforms that use AI (such as the YouTube algorithm) can affect a students online experience, specifically when studying.

Define

Next, we further defined/framed the problem we are tackling by creating ‘How Might We’s’ (HMW). We then synthesized them into refined statements we could use to ideate.

Refined focus

Ideate

I introduced the Crazy 8’s exercise to my team, where we each came up with up to eight ideas in eight minutes. We then converged to discuss and filter ideas by focusing on desirability, viability and feasibility.

Crazy 8’s ideation

After settling our focus on student productivity, I shared apps that accomplish similar tasks (ex. Todoist) for inspiration. I also discussed the possibility of partnerships with the companies behind those apps to develop our idea.

Storyboarding / detailing features of chosen idea

Prototype

Next, we prototyped our chosen idea using provided materials.

I offered the idea of presenting a scenario associated with our idea as a skit, using paper prototypes.

Reflection

We received positive feedback, including a couple students saying they would use our extension. If we were to move forward with our concept, it would require further understanding the problem, user research and development.

Overall, the design jam was a fun experience! An opportunity to recap design concepts, meet new people and make something for an interesting problem.

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