Brains over brawn
My BMC 377 assignment is focused on the words of wisdom of a former boss of mine: “Do it the smart way, not the hard way.” I have come to think of this as a call to use one’s brain over one’s brawn.
My individual assignment is centered on the challenge of carrying solo canoes for smaller paddlers or those who have a preexisting injury. Solo paddlers often carry their boats over great distances to access the rivers or lakes that they wish to paddle; the access route may be paved or it may be over uneven terrain. Often the carry, or portage, to the water is short but sometimes it can be a couple of kilometres in length. The challenge here is that boats are often heavy (my boat weighs in at 50 pounds) and unwieldy to carry owing to their shape (my boat is 2.71 metres long).
Many paddlers like my friend Earl depicted here are strong enough to carry their boats by resting it on their heads. Other paddlers like myself are either not strong enough or find that the carrying position can create or aggravate neck injuries.
Some paddlers use break-down canoe wheels, or portage carts, to haul their boats. These work well over even terrain but there are two main challenges: 1) carrying those wheels in your boat (which is challenging in a whitewater boat that has no room for cargo and/or where cargo may be a hazard); or 2) the subsequent challenge of not having the wheels downriver at the end of your paddle (you then have to walk or drive to get the wheels from the put-in). So, paddlers like me are left reliant on other paddlers’ kindness to help carry our boats which is not always a viable option. The “how might we” (HMW) statement for this challenge is “How might we enable paddlers to get their boats to the water safely without resting them on their heads?”
As a next step, I used the “empathy map canvas” to begin engaging in human-centered design.
Following the creation of the empathy map, I received a helpful suggestion to delve further into human-centered design by exploring different personas and what they think, do and feel. I created these personas based upon people I know from the paddling community and on conversations that I have had with them over a number of years. I created a table in Mural to engage in this exercise (see below). I was not surprised by the things each persona had in common, however I had an “a-ha moment” when I articulated how each persona differed in their thinking, doing and feeling. Subsequently, I identified different design opportunities tied to each persona. It strikes me that it is both an opportunity and challenge to meet all the needs of a diversity of personas with one design intervention.
Throughout this assignment, I had to consciously remind myself to stay focused on building empathy and understanding of the people who face the challenge of getting their boat to the water safely and efficiently. It is very tempting to start jumping to brainstorming solutions and prototyping. However, this assignment has instilled in me the knowledge that investing the time and energy to get to put yourself in your users’ shoes (or boats as the case may be) is well worth the effort. And, I think a person can always be pleasantly surprised when they take the time to observe, listen to, and engage with others.
