Sticky Notes Make the Dream Work

The AI Design Thinking Exercise was a really great exercise for our group. Being able to just throw out all of our ideas in one space prompted really productive conversations about what our AI design is going to look like. It was great to be able to lay out the step-by-step process of the user activity and then use our sticky notes to figure out how AI could help along the way. While the process was relatively long, the end result helped us focus in on things we didn’t seriously consider before like the Meat Map idea and notification capabilities. This process also helped us rule out ideas we have been carrying for awhile that may not be helpful or practical because we were able to look at it next to our users journey. It was cool to see some ideas come out in this process that we didnt really consider that are now going to be part of our design. I think this exercise really helped design thinking with our user in mind and solidified aspects of our product that will really help our users in their workplace.

I think the Mural website was a great medium for us to organize our ideas. At first, the layout and interface seemed kind of intimidating because of all the sticky notes and sections, but as our group played with the Mural Map we started to get a hang of it. There is definitely a learning curve when it comes to this system, but once we figured it our by experimentation and looking at examples, it was a really productive process.

Future users just need to remember to be patient and have fun with it. Our professor kept encouraging us to go really outside of the box and at first, I was afraid all of the random and outlandish ideas would only bog us down, but a lot of them actually prompted really good conversations about our AI design. Working as a team on this assignment is also very important because it is a great way to learn new ideas from your teammates.