Design for end users

Editor's Notes

1. Into Me Background RVA KSA Design Thinking Process OWP
2. Why are we here? Why did we choose to become designers?   Creative, shaping space, etc….? To solve problems? To help people!    
3. We are all here for the same purpose. Helping Other People.   Interesting how we can sometimes lose sight of that.   Our clients lose sight of it. We lose sight of it.   Even some of the most revered among us fall into that trap
4. Does anyone know what this is? (Dean Kamen’s Segway)    Did it change the world? Why not? Our highways are clogged because people need solutions for speed, distance, capacity, protection from the elements etc….   The Segway is an amazing technology – trying to solve the wrong problem. First lessons to designing for end users - Ensuring we are solving for the right problem.
5. Henry Ford quote… “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Jobs often quoted saying something similar I like it because there is a little truth to it, but more so because it is a complete misquote – Jobs never said it.
6. Jobs never said that people were not important in the process, or that they were lemmings waiting to have us brilliant designers dictate their needs. Rather he said, people are really bad at understanding and explaining what they need or want. And THAT is the real job of designers. To uncover those needs – not to disregard them – or to design in a vacuum. THAT is why we are here?   ---to discern what our end users really need – and to create solutions that put those needs above everything else?
7.  So just as great design does not occur in a vacuum neither is it delivered by those who simply do exactly as they are told Great design both requires the genius of inspiration and the ability to discern the root needs of people. We have a duty to not ignore what others need - and give them what WE want We have a duty to do more than simply ask what someone needs – and complicity give it to them.
8. But sometimes we get in our own way. We are pretty smart folks. We are experts We do this for a living. And sometimes even the best of us get some things wrong. I have a little story I like to tell about two Franks.
9. A story of Two Franks Our first Frank was one of the most imaginative and influential designers of the 20th century. And I applaud him for his successes as much as his failures - failure can (counterintuitively) be an incredibly positive thing. But Frank number one existed in a time when there were very few concerns for the users of his spaces, Ultimately, few concerns beyond his own vision. Tell story about FallingWater, Kentuck Knob & Johnson Wax bldg. Leaky, moldy buildings and death defying three legged secretary chairs be damned!
10. Gehry is an artist of form – His structures challenge our very perception of what architecture and space can and should be. However his buildings are impossible to maintain, difficult to occupy, with posses very little connection to the people who use them. end us.er can be irresponsible and sometimes even dangerous Much like Mr. Kamen, Frank has found an amazing technology in search of a solution (not the other way around).
11. MIT, the client for Gehry’s Stata center ultimately sued Gehry and settled out of court for numerous design flaws. Boston University President John Silber, once said that , Gehry “thinks of himself as an artist, as a sculptor. But the trouble is you don’t live in a sculpture and users have to live in this building.” It’s not so much that he made errors, it is the nonchalance with which he regards those errors. I think frank has Forgotten about PEOPLE Solving problems with disregard to the client and end user can be irresponsible and sometimes even dangerous
12. So sometimes we get in our own way – we let our Egos get too far out in front of us. Other times, we focus so closely on our clients we forget that our clients are not our end users.
13. Sometimes we get in the habit of serving the client everything they ask for. If the client asks for it, we forget to dig deeper and attempt to understand the WHY It is so easy to fall into this trap. The client pays us, they sign off on the solutions. If we don’t give them what they want, they will just “fire us and find someone who will”. How do we tactfully get there? Where and to whom are we ethically bound?
14. This is a situation in which I think we find ourselves far more often. Our clients are not determined to do the wrong thing for their own end users, The challenge is that our clients and end users often have conflicting needs. Sometimes end users are just stubborn and afraid of change - or like jobs said “are really bad at knowing what they want” Sometimes the client’s processes and procedures, standards and protocols choke out flexibility and opportunities to improve. How do WE play a role in helping them both to a workable solution.
15. Back home - particular amazing client. - great people, interesting projects. Straight laced, buttoned down, very corporate. - It was a - “business casual” means sport coat but no tie - kind of place. IT side of their business was growing - fast. These workers were younger, more collaborative, open minded innovative thinkers who preferred to work across boundaries and not in silos. We relocated - everyone around them considered them a disturbance – a pariah. Because, they challenged the corporate status quo of working alone. These workers needed collaboration and craved working side by side. Literally pulled up next to each other with their laptops inches apart. And for our client – this was a HUGE problem.
16. The fear was that these IT guys would turn their conservative “buttoned up” company into THIS. above The organization’s established culture certainly was not flimsy enough to devolve into red bull and xbox hacker spaces. But they fought this idea of free form collaboration (or even unscripted movement) hard. We were asked to daily track these people – when they weren’t working from their assigned locations In time however – attitudes began to change – leadership began to change – and I’d like to hope that our own feedback allowed the organization to see a better way forward. Eventually we led a project to create several dedicated floors of collaborative workspace – mostly free of cubicles –for this department and their free flowing project teams. Suddenly collaborative space was something the organization felt it needed to provide.
17. So we began implementing fun, open collaborative spaces throughout the company. (Example Photo – not actual client) And an unexpected thing happened. the spaces went completely unused All of the end users we had spoke to said they wanted, and needed collaborative space – But would not use it? The rest of the organization was pretty heavily influenced by towing the company line – and for a really long time there was a perception that if you were not at your desk – you were not working. Built walls around the collaborative areas. Slowly took down those barriers over time. How do we get there before we make these costly errors?
18. So how do we do that in a more systematic way Not every client is going to allow us to build and re-built test spaces to shift their corporate culture to meet their end user needs. Most of the time, both sides are required to meet somewhere in the middle. We have found that the design thinking mindset is one of the best ways to accomplish this.
19. Design thinking exists at the convergence of User Needs, Empathic Solutions, and Feasibility. All three of these things must be accounted for in providing truly breakthrough innovations – or to move the cultural needle in an organization.
20. We found that by considering something I call the five “E”’s for both the client and your project team is a great tool for working through this. elicit the most information to gain informed insights – Task force of ATYPICAL Stakeholders. Ask better questions or more people. empathy for the problem and each others positions. Asking questions and getting rote answers won’t get us there. We need to observe, conduct empathy interviews, spend time with the people impacted by the challenge. This is not a small commitment. But it does not have to be impossible to implement. empower your team of designers, client and end user reps, and stakeholders. This includes creating a safe process for brainstorming and generating ideas. There are countless tools for this, but the most important aspect is to adopt an attitude of Yes/And to defer judgement of ideas. This may be the greatest exercise you do in generating trust between the client and end user participants. enthuse all involved as to the importance of this project, and that this solution is theirs! They are co-owners of this process and in implementing it’s success. eject any and all agendas we may bring to the table – beyond solving this problem. This goes for our design team as much as it does for the client and end user representatives that we make a part of the process.
21. Start with a YES AND activity Then introduce a How Might We question - frame the challenge in a positive light. Then explore it from unexpected vantage points – always focused on the user. We’ve been asked to design an airport lounge. Who’s our client? Who is our end user? What about children – a particularly challenging and often ignored end user.
22. How might we improve the airline experience……for children under 12 2 min brainstorm – then change up the question: Amp up the good: HMW use the kids’ energy to entertain fellow passengers? Explore the opposite: HMW make the wait the most exciting part of the trip? or HMW make playful, loud kids welcome instead of shunned? Question an assumption: HMW entirely remove the wait time at the airport? Go after adjectives: HMW we make the rush rejuvenating instead of stressful? Create an analogy from need or context: HMW make the airport like a playground? Change a status quo: HMW make the airport a place that kids want to go? Another 2 minutes – as many ideas as you can.
23. When I have led groups that might otherwise have a tendency for shutting down idea generation, I have found that this is a great activity to allow for a safe and fun way to improve and validate suggested solutions or ideas. Everyone pick one solution (post-it) from the wall. For 60 seconds – write down how you would implement that idea. Pass your paper to the person to your right. 2 min. write down everything that will go wrong - why it wont work. Pass the paper to the right. On this persons paper – read the original idea. See why it wont work. For 3 minutes – find a way to improve that idea – while maintaining the original intent