Learning Design [Thinking]
Design Thinking helps
This week we’ve delivered a series of learning modules to one of our education partners that are designed to support educators, students and managers in the creation and maintenance of “COVID Safe” learning and working environments. These modules will be pushed out to approximately 120 campuses, globally. This is an interesting project in itself but I wanted to reflect on the design process.
At Graccon Learning Solutions our two big areas of expertise are learning design and design thinking. Design thinking informs much of what we do - how we think, talk, plan and collaborate with our clients to design, develop and deploy digital learning environments.
How?
As a check of where we are in the design process of discovery, design and delivery.
Discovery
- The Brief — kicks of the design journey, often with too much information (everything is included).
- Immersion — asking questions about the brief, interviewing clients so that we can identify what’s important to put into the actual modules of #microlearning. e.g tell us about your users (e.g multi-cultural, variety of ages, educators, well-informed).
- Designing storyboards as low-resolution ‘prototypes’ — e.g a half day of work.
In this project I had an excellent ‘design thinking’ moment where our client said ‘That’s not what we wanted.’
This is ‘that’ very ambiguous and potentially scary moment that I don’t find so scary anymore ,as I know a rough prototype will guide us forward. A catch phrase in design thinking is ‘trust the process’. I’ve learnt to catch our clients at that point where they are also feeling overwhelmed. And maybe lost.
Design is often about finding clarity in the midst of ambiguity.
I’ve also taught to catch myself in this moment…to push forward by using the prototype to interview the customer: -
Indeed, that’s the purpose of the ‘prototype’. It’s not the solution. It’s a tool to re-engage with your user and to re-immerse with them into that ‘opportunity space’ and clarify their thinking… to find an opportunity for design. At this point you also realise that they really didn’t know what they wanted, or their view was so tacit that they couldn’t communicate their idea clearly.
That’s the beauty of design…exploring unknowns via prototypes.
Then, when your client has found clarity…
Design
5. Building wireframes with more detail — the resolution increases. Images appear in the prototype, colour schemes, navigation buttons, page numbers, questions…
6. Pushing the build online brings more clarity
7. Pivoting if the wire framed idea doesn’t sit well when digital.
8. Then comes more iterative change. We get to the point of exploring the use of language, individual words, full stops and commas.
Delivery
9. In this (joyful) instance our client said something like “I’m pretty happy with how project is landing.” People relax as they can see and interact with their idea. Is the idea still a protoype? In some respects yes but high -resolution where discussions become very granular and, in this project, we discuss how people are reacting to this project (Covid Safety) at a political and personal level. Design works like that. It helps you make sense of the world.
So, I tend to think of ‘prototyped thinking’. But that’s my professional interest with design…the epistemological stuff/sense making.
The learning.
This prototyping and learning culture that’s supported by design thinking is important stuff.
10.This is also where we hand over ownership of the ‘product’’ as it goes ‘in-house’ for accessibility and user testing. Changes occur right until the end user ‘uses’ these modules.
10. We know it doesn’t stop there as we are often involved in ‘first run remediations’ where end user feedback is used to fine tune the learning design.
In this space of digital learning design our understanding of design thinking is significantly helpful. It guides us through ambiguity and in our work of making ideas real.
It’s what we do.
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Learning Design | Design Thinking | Pedagogy| Learning Spaces
