This document provides an overview of the design thinking process used by a team of students at Savannah College of Art and Design to research millennials and spending habits. It outlines the stages of discovery, examine, solidify, imagine, go, and nourish. In discovery, the team conducted secondary research, observed millennials, used cultural probes and interviews to gather data. In examine, they analyzed observations and created article topics and data visualizations. In solidify, they reviewed articles and identified opportunities. In imagine, they created a prototype shopping app. In go, they implemented the prototype. In nourish, they sought user validation and looked toward next steps.

1. MILLENNIALS & SPENDING
PROCESS BOOK
Contextual Research Methods
Dalana Woodward
Professor Kwela Hermanns
Savannah College of Art and Design
Spring 2016

2. Is a non-linear approach to unlocking opprotunities in the busi-
ness market.
D.E.S.I.G.N. METHOD
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E
SD
I
G
N
DISCOVER
Observe, Immerse, Document and
Collaborate with the user
IMAGINE
Create Ideas, Dreams, Generate
Compelling Solutions
EXAMINE
Convert Observations Into Fact
Group Thoughts/Themes
SOLIDIFY
Design Thinking, Imagine Possibil-
ities. Identify Opprotunity
GO
Do it! Make It Happen.
Implement
NOURISH
Seek User Acceptance &
Validation... What’s Next?

3. By divine intervention and a speed dating excercise team “Un-
titled” was born.
MEET THE TEAM
LOTTI
ZEILER
MEETA
GIANANI
ELI
WALLACE
DALANA
WOODWARD
GARRETT
ALBURY
Industrial Design
Munich, tGermany
20
Industrial Design
Mumbai, India
20
Industrial Design
Independence, MO
20
UX Design
Independence, KS
20
UX Design
Palm City, FL
20

4. The discovery stage is to develop
knowledge and feelings on your topic. The
discovery phase is about emotion and how
to use them to create an innovative con-
cept.
Ethnographers must develop an un-
derstanding of the users desires, needs,
and behaviors. To find this we observe and
interact with users in their own environ-
ment. This stage is for learning and gather-
ing information.
I did this through multiple methods.
Beginning with observing millennials, then
moving onto cultural probes and interview-
ing.
Observe, Immerse, Document and Collaborate with the User.
DISCOVERY
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5. Secondary Research
By Forbes, Inc. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
By The New York Times [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
By Variety [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
DISCOVERY
Our first step was to research
what a ritual actually was. Our team
briefly defined a ritual as an activity
that we perform at least as much for
its symbolic and emotional value as
well as for its practical value.
Then on an individual level we all
set out to find sources talking about
our topic which we had defined as
millennials and shopping. I primarily
focused my part of the secondary re-
search on online streaming services,
millennial entrepreneurship, thrifting/
upcycling, and coffee consumption.
This research not only gave me
good data points, it was a spring
board for topics that ended up in our
magazine.

6. Observing Millennials
DISCOVERY
We observed both as a team and sep-
arately. As a team we observed at target
and Starbucks on Victory Square. The only
problem with this was it was mid-day and
not a popular time for millennials. We also
observed Foxy Loxy as a group for the first
Art March
I also observed Starbucks on Brough-
ton, The Foundry, Broughton Street walking
groups, and other shops on boundary street.
This time taking timing into consideration.

7. Our first cultural probe was for the
in class exercise, after around 45 minutes
of making a probe on pop culture we de-
cided that a more powerful and emotion
based topic of fitting rooms. From this we
learned valuable information such as how
to get as many data sets which we imple-
mented in our next probe.
Our next probes were displayed at
art march. We used the idea of the emo-
ji responses on one probe but made it
a scale this time because some “good
notes” from the class was that our first
probe was too polarizing. We had sever-
al “golden nuggets” from these probes
such as only U.S. Millennials had positive
view of shopping events (black Friday, cy-
ber Monday, etc.)
Cultural Probe
DISCOVERY

8. Interviewing was personally my fa-
vorite ethnographic tool we used in class.
Interviewing when done successfully can
give you unique and personal insight. Not
just from the answers you receive in your
questioning but seeing people interact
with an environment they are comfortable
in. From my experience some of the most
meaningful finds for me came from inter-
viewing. From interviewing for our indi-
vidual videos to hosting a group interview
at The Foundry Coffee Shop, my brief ex-
perience with interviewing has been en-
lightening.
But it isn’t an easy skill to master, and
I am not even close, the task of even just
making your interviewee comfortable and
open in your presence is a task that eth-
nographers must learn through practice.
Interviews
DISCOVERY
Photo Credit: The Foundry Savannah, GA

9. Affinity Mapping
DISCOVERY
Affinity mapping is to create new and
innovative groups of thoughts, ideas, data
points, etc. While I was not able to attend
the make up class where we affinitized our
post it notes. I did get to do the preliminary
work on listing data points and it was inter-
esting to see how my team mates grouped
them from an outsiders perspective.
However, I did get experience affinity
mapping after our prototype critique. One
piece of feedback we received was about
the order/categorization of our articles. So
as a team we decided to use the affinity
mapping method to organize our articles.
At first I struggled with going with my gut
to organize instead of putting them togeth-
er as they previously had been. At the end
though, I believe our magazines flow im-
proved immensely and had a much stronger
narrative.

10. Harnessing data from the discovery
stage the examination stage ethnogra-
phers must look at the observations and
data they have gathered and change them
into facts and data. This is also the stage
where you start to see common themes
and start grouping these facts together.
Convert Observation into Facts
EXAMINE
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11. Article Subjects
EXAMINE
One of the many ways we exam-
ined the data we had discovered was
through the creation of possible mag-
azine article topics. We were given a
set amount of time and as a group at
to brainstorm 50+ ideas for possible
topics/headlines.
This exercise pushed us to quick-
ly group together facts and data we
had previously grouped in our af-
finity mapping. The difficulty in this
process came from the fact that we
had to produce many ideas in a short
time. It was easy to quickly exhaust
all your previous ideas but it forced
you to think creatively about t the
data and how to harness it.

12. Data Visualization
EXAMINE
INSPIRATION: IMPLEMENTATION:
FITTING ROOM PROBE RESPONSES
Dalana Woodward, Elijah Wallace, Garrett Albury, Lotti Zeiler, Meeta Gianani
TOTAL RESPONSES
DO YOU GO ALONE OR IN A GROUP?
12
25
9
224
HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN
IN A FITTING ROOM?
HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU
SPEND ON AVERAGE?

13. Data Visualization
EXAMINE
In the examine stage data visualization is extremely im-
portant because it can help you easily point out patterns and
important data sets such as “golden nuggets” or outliers.
One method of data visualization for us was inforgraphics.
I made the infographic on the right to visualize our first cultur-
al probe. Throughout this class as a group we made several
infographics on a team and individual level. As the class went
on I noticed that we started showing more and more data in
our infographics and learned how to better highlight the im-
portant information at hand.

14. The solidify stage is about knowing
what you need to solve the problem. You
can also review and redefine your infor-
mation you found in either the discovery
or the examination stage. You should take
this time to rewrite a brief opportunity
statement.
Desigin Thinking, Imagining Possibilities, Identify Opprotunities
SOLIDIFY
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15. Article Headlines Review
SOLIDIFY
After we did the headlines exer-
cise as a group we went back in and
solidified which articles we wanted to
write about based on both the class
interest and our own personal curiosi-
ty.
After we chose our main articles
we distributed them evenly through-
out the team. We found that some
topics that the class was extremely in-
terested in were lacking enough data
for an entire article. It was then our
job on an individual level to get any
more data that we felt we needed
for that article. It was at this time that
we could clearly see solid patterns in
our article topics such as fashion and
food.

16. Looking at the Lextant
model on millennials we solid-
ified our research and found
new insights.
Lextant Model
SOLIDIFY
Photos by Kinfolk and Life & Thyme
I want
to feel
extraoridinary
LOVEGO
LIVEMEET NEW
PEOPLE
DISCOVER TRAVEL
SPEND TIME
AND MONEY
UNDEFINED
RELATIONSHIPS
APPRECIATION
SOCIALIZE
GIVING AND
TAKING
MAKING
A DIFFERENCE
EXCEL
IN OUR JOBS
RESPONSIBILITY
AND INVOLVEMENT
SUCCESS

17. Reframing
SOLIDIFY
Reframing is a tool used by eth-
nographers to gain a new point of
view by taking an idea or thought,
finding 4 supporting ideas, and then
completely flipping that on its head
to get another perspective.
This exercise specifically helped
us with coming up with the topic of
millennial bonds with family (and lat-
er how that integrated with spend-
ing). In my opinion this is really when
we started thinking of more emotion
driven questions we wanted to find
answers for.
Supporting
Idea
Supporting
Idea
Supporting
Idea
Supporting
Idea
MAIN
IDEA
Supporting
Idea
Supporting
Idea
Supporting
Idea
Supporting
Idea
COUNTER
IDEA

18. After we knew our headline topics we
started thinking about the aesthetics of our
magazine. Looking at our overall theme of
articles we saw that we mostly had fashion
and lifestyle articles. So it was a logical de-
cision that we looked at fashion magazines
for our inspiration.
Magazine Aesthetic
SOLIDIFY
Photos by Kinfolk and Life & Thyme

19. Magazine Aesthetic Cont.
SOLIDIFY
Once we chose our magazine
aesthetic, we then created an edito-
rial board to solidify our desired aes-
thetic. We chose our typefaces, gen-
eral layouts, and color schemes.
While this aesthetic overall was
extremely successful for us there
were instance where it was hard to
make the data fit aesthetically. Our
solution was to make our infograph-
ics as a photo spread to continue to
fit the editorial theme.

20. The imagine stage is all about creativ-
ity and generating ideas and solutions. Re-
consider your problem statement and work
to ideate solutions.
In this stage you can ask questions like
“what forms will my projects take?” and
“how to my ideas fit into the world around
me?”
Create Ideas, Dream, and Generate Compelling Solutions
IMAGINE
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21. Prototype
IMAGINE
As a team we were asked to cre-
ate a prototype for a product that
stems from our research. We sat
down and wrote as many ideas as we
could think of from a prototype of the
perfect fitting room to an improved
store layout.
In the end we decided that since
we are the only team with a UX Ma-
jor it made sense for us to utilize the
skill. We used our research on on-
line shopping and millennial’s use of
mobile devices to create an all inclu-
sive shopping app. Thus Woven was
born.

22. The go phase is about taking the ideas
and strategies you created in the imagine
phase and implementing them. Making
many different variations on this one idea.
It is also about testing what you have
created with the user. Making sure that
what you made is novel and valuable.
Do It, Make It Happen, Implement
GO...
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23. Prototype Creation
GO...
After the intial prototype idea of
“shopping app” was created I went
on an individual level and further ex-
panded the idea. I looked at the mar-
ket seeing what most shopping apps
were missing.
I polled millennials in The Hive
residence all on what they like/dis-
liked about online shopping. With
this information and secondary in-
formation I received from research I
created a rough idea of a social shop-
ping app that allowed something in-
store shopping never did - a universal
checkout cart allowing the user to
purchase from multiple stores all at
once.

24. In the nourish stage you must seek ac-
ceptance of your ideas and look towards
the future to next steps.
While team “Untitled” might be com-
ing to a close as individual ethnographers
we will use this project as a stepping stone
into the contextual researching world.
Seek User Acceptance, Validation
NOURISH
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25. THANK YOU!
FROM TEAM UNTITLED
Dalana Woodward
https://www.behance.net/dalanawoodward