Spaghetti Jams
I’m going to start with the project that ignited my love for Service Design and Design Thinking. Spaghetti Jams was set up by Daniel Blyden and Chris Sadler. Hyper Island graduates. I didn’t know at the time of signing up I was taking part in Chris’ Masters research project.
Spaghetti Jams started out as a one off event. A 48 hour design jam based on the theme of Service Design. I wanted to do something different, something spontaneous. The usual weekend of going around the city’s art galleries weren’t cutting it. I wanted to get making things. I signed up and got down to Impact Hub Birmingham to settle in for the weekend.
Following a framework based on IDEO’s human-centred design ideology, Stanford d.school Design Thinking process and Design Council’s Double Diamond I got the hands on approach I was after. Rapidly learning about product design, design thinking and working in a team made up of people from different backgrounds and skill sets. I got the chance to develop my skills, team work and be creative — do more, talk less. Action and sprints.
I got the best out the weekend by following the process. Every evening after each session I would feel shattered. The next morning I was there ready to go excited for the next stage. Time to dive into each day and take you through the process I went on.
Day One
After meeting everyone and finding out what people would be doing instead of taking part in a research project we heard a presentation from Dominic Campbell from FutureGov. His talk was about what Service Design is and tied in some really nice examples. Such as Casserole Club, a micro-volunteering web platform that allows people to sign up as volunteer Cooks and share a portion of home-cooked food with an older person (Diners). Hearing about it through Ada’s List is one thing — seeing an actual person talking about it another thing. Buzzing.
The presentation set the ball rolling for the big reveal. The secret theme video:
TLDW:
And onto Idea Generation… Trying to make sense of the theme. Following a series of discussions to identify themes for problems and moving around the room, I went with an idea theme I felt I related to and could get under the skin of for the next two days:
Wrapping up day one with reflecting on:
- Our Professions (skills) (superpower)
- Our Passions (values)
- What are your concerns about the weekend? (Kryptonite)
Day Two
Moving on to field research, getting out the building and talking to real people. It was purely a time find out what people thought, felt and did. I got a run through about the sort of questions that we can ask people and to remember to listen, let the person who you’re interviewing do the talking. Keep it short in length and speak to as many people as possible.
Field Research Day 1:
I recorded the interviews I conducted and jotted notes down post interview. I wanted to be fully engaged with each person who took the time out and spoke to us. Choosing high density areas with lots of footfall paid off. Speaking to people at train stations and coach stations where they were waiting for their connections and had time to speak to us led to some really interesting insights. Mapped on the boards below and synthesised into an empathy map:
Ideating:
After collating and discussing insights we shared with the wider group what we had discovered, challenged us, surprised us, assumptions we had and the actual reality. Realised we aren’t designing for ourselves, we kept the personas and insights on the walls so we remembered throughout the process who we are trying to help with our ideas. I felt the core themes were
- Discovery (people wanted to find out more about the city)
- Boredom (people felt bored waiting between connections)
- Frustration (not knowing where anything in the city is)
It’s very easy to walk around this city , but when you don’t know how to or don’t have access to the information you need help you do that — people might start to feel lonely, isolated and resentful of their immediate situation or environment. One person we spoke to was transiting through from Newcastle to Leicester and the only thing she liked about the city was the pizza. When asked why that was she said it was the only thing she knew.
Less talking, more doing
With pain points and core themes identified, each of us individually brainstormed out we could visualise our service. Was it an app? Was it it a website? Was it a map or guide?
Rapid prototyping, iteration, insights
This process saw us taking our sketches out back on the streets for initial feedback and see whether people would find it helpful. We had a few comments about how rough it looked but general feedback gave us the vibe we were on the right lines. In the coach station I observed what people were doing while waiting around:
We found out people when people are in a new city their concerns range from distances (not knowing how close or how far things are), time (will they have enough time between connections?) and what activities are around them?
I decided to sketch a Customer User Journey based on the above along with the moods people had spoken to us about too:
Using this I started sketching out what the service might look like:
Wrapping up day two with the skeleton of an idea, what it might look like and where we could find people to talk to about the service felt amazing. Going through the process of rapid prototyping was intensive but the results put it us on track to come back in the next day with a solid idea to finalise, test outdoors and prepare to present to the rest of the group.
Day three
Breaking down the idea into content, experience, user flow, visualisation and we brought these together into a paper prototype:
I put version 1 into POP (edit: POPapp.in joined Marvel this year)to test out with people. Click below to see version 1 and hit preview:
The feedback we got asked us why there were no photos, colours or map. Exactly what I was after. Honest comments that would lead to action straight away.
Iterating again we added more colours, a map, directions and essential information such as opening times and cost.
Version 2:
Click below to see version 2 and hit preview:
Outcomes
We pitched our idea and WON!
Sticking to the process and not being afraid to challenge assumptions were key learnings I took away from this project. The whole experience taught me that having a strong idea built on a foundation of solid research.
Gander is still in working process. Alvaro (User Researcher and designer), Khyati (Copywriter) and I made a pact that one day we will spend another 48 hours together developing this into a high fidelity that could help people’s emotional wellbeing. The Slack channel is full of ideas, inspiration and motivation to keep going.