Design Thinking — CoLab fun with d.school’s virtual crash course
The highlight of our CoLab Exchange session on creativity was taking part in the d.school design thinking virtual crash course
d.school is the informal name for the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University, which runs highly sought after classes and is very well known in the design world.
The d.school is a hub for innovation, collaboration and creativity. Their mission is to help people become everyday innovators, everywhere. The following is an extract from an article about d.school in the New York Times:
“At the heart of the school’s courses is developing what David Kelley, one of the school’s founders, calls an empathy muscle… students are taught to forgo computer screens and spreadsheets and focus on people…
In the eight years since the design school opened, students have churned out dozens of innovative products and start-ups. They have developed original ways to tackle infant mortality, unreliable electricity and malnutrition in the third world, as well as clubfoot, a common congenital deformity that twists a baby’s feet inward and down.”
After a run through of the 90 minute crash course back in the office, Kate Green and I agreed that it was a brilliant introduction to the design thinking process, as it actually provides a way to put it in to practice using a simple example. The activity involves working in pairs, and going through design thinking steps:
The activity is fast paced, but really fun. When we asked what people thought of it they said they liked the pace and they enjoyed doing it. If you’re wondering what on earth all this has to with collaboration or co-production, or the day-to-day work of people who deliver or support local services, for me the connection is around some of the key concepts which underpin a design thinking approach:
- Being user centred- is what you are doing/providing/planning useful to the user and how do you know?
- Co-producing solutions — which brings in different perspectives and increases your chances for success.
- Prototyping — there is a tendency for people in organisations to want to pilot new ideas. Design thinking processes encourage you to prototype instead — just go out and talk to people, test it out, before committing resources to expensive pilots in which you have already fixed down lots of things.
- Being visual — this is important becuase adults have tendency to fix ideas very early. When planning or designing services it is good to tap in to people’s artistic, playful side and be more visual.
What feels relevant to your work which design thinking can offer?
You can run the design thinking virtual crash course yourself with people you work or volunteer with. All you need to is download a copy of the playbook for yourself, copies of the worksheets for everyone taking part (you need an even number of people), have tables, chairs and some craft resources around (pens, paper, sticky tape etc.) and either stream the 90 minute video or download it to a laptop and run it (don’t forget you’ll need speakers). The playbook, worksheets and video are all here.
