Research → Design
Summer is here!
As we embrace the season, our team is thrilled to embark upon the design phase. In the initial sprint of summer, we planned the timeline for the design phase and extracted design implications from various stages of the research phase and also got started on the first round of ideation and prototyping.
Project Plan
The design phase will be divided into five stages. Initially, the team will focus on ideation and rapid prototyping, as well as testing. The objective is to generate many unconventional and innovative ideas, which we will informally test with students and teachers and then co-iterate on. In the second ideation stage, the team will narrow down the ideas and iterate on fewer, more implementable, usable, and desirable directions.
During each “ideation week,” the team will use the GV sprint schedule as a loose guide to help organize and streamline the design project. This schedule provides a clear aim for each day and offers a roadmap to keep the team focused and aligned throughout the process:
- Monday: Generate ideas
- Tuesday: Critiquing ideas & Making prototype
- Wednesday: Iterate & Internal test
- Thursday: Revision & Refine
- Friday: Eternal text & Co-design
- Weekends: Retro, synthesis
By July, we aim to finalize one solid direction and have high-fidelity prototypes ready for formal external testing. The final two weeks will be dedicated to refining and preparing deliverables.
Archetypes and Design Implications
Oftentimes, designers and researchers conduct extensive research, yet the findings are not fully reflected in the end product. Therefore, how can we ensure that our designs are influenced by our research?
Defining the ‘must haves’ and ‘nice to haves’ for users
To ensure our design addresses the issues we identified through research, we developed a list of ‘must have’ and ‘nice to achieve’ criteria based on archetypes of overachieving students, misunderstood students, and teachers. Design concepts will be internally checked against the list and adjusted before any external testing. By using archetypes derived from research, we can confidently address the needs of our target audience.
Look at research takeaways through designer lenses
Our team also revisited all of the primary research data from previous sprints, but this time we looked at it from the perspective of designers. We thoroughly examined various sources such as client chats, teacher and student interviews, exit interview day chats, and presentation feedback. In the previous research phase, we wore “researcher hats” and focused mainly on conceptual aspects while clustering. Now, as we transitioned to a design role, we converted the research findings into design considerations that helped us identify potential opportunities and risks for designing.
First Round of Ideation & Testing
Ideation
The team leveraged Reverse Assumptions and Forced Relationships to help generate unconventional ideas.
We then clustered similar ideas, then talked through each cluster with a modified version of the Six Thinking Hats Method, where each member of the team critiques the concepts from a specific designated stakeholders’ perspective. With these mindsets, each person addresses the topic or problem from that standpoint, resulting in a more comprehensive critique of concepts before talking through each cluster and dot-voting on ideas to be prototyped. We will create, prototype, and test the top 5 voted clusters against archetypes internally and with authentic users externally.
Testing: The Lion Workbook
This is the very first week and happens to be shorter than other ideation weeks. So the team decided to quickly prototype one idea that got multiple votes but is on the safe/conventional end, which is “Students learn about Lion Learner Traits (LLT) through workshops and artifacts.”
We are curious to learn about:
- Are students able to understand and identify with LLTs?
- Is it boring? What might make it more or less engaging?
- What impact does our intervention have on users?
We thus prototyped a workbook with two main sections:
- Introducing the lion learner traits: what is it, what are some famous people (role models) with this trait, why is it essential for the innovation-driven economy, and what are some actionable steps to improve on it
- Activity worksheets: Where students use prompts to self-reflect and reflect with other
Overall, participants engaged actively in the activities and enjoyed the social aspect. However, they were unsure about the next steps after self-identification (even though we wrote them in the booklet). They found the formal text-heavy book format uninteresting (“feels very educational”).
Suggestions included defining success metrix (“what is the ideal behavior change?”), adding gamified elements, making personalized, easy-to-access next steps, addressing high-performing students’ motivation, and contextualizing the booklet within a specific subject/school setting.
Next Steps
Although the initial prototype was fast and rough, it provided valuable learning experiences for the team. It’s essential to establish a success matrix and product goals alongside creating the product itself. Moving forward, the team will define the success matrix and be more considerate about when, where and to whom the product will be introduced to.
And as planned, we will continue to explore broadly with creativity this week and the next, rapidly testing ideas generated. We are excited to visit South Fayette High School with our prototypes and gather primary users’ reactions and feedback. We also look forward to connecting with the client and engaging in co-designing and collaboratively testing concepts!
