NEOTIE Fall 2015 - Design Thinking for Problem Solving - Kassey Sikora - Aughtonburgh

Editor's Notes

1. Hello, and thank you for coming to my session, design thinking for problem solving. A note before I begin, these slides are on my website, Aughtonburgh.com if you’d like to download them now to follow along or later. And then after this session I’ll have some posts with more exercises and additional resources if you’re interested. Before I show the agenda, I wanted to do a quick 1 minute exercise. You have one minute to come up with as many ideas for these circles as you can. The goal is QUANTITY not quality.
2. What was the point of that? To get you to stretch your imagination and learn to produce many things in a short period of time.
3. If I’m talking really fast please slow me down. I have that tendency.
4. Who am I? Professionally, a designer at a software company. I do UI/UX or interaction design there. I run a side business, Ab, doing design and photography. A little about me personally, I lived in England for a while, I love cats but I’m allergic to them, and I go to brunch almost every weekend. Who’s my audience here? About you. Your name and your tie to education.
5. Begins with a deep understanding of needs and motivations of people. (Students, teachers, parents, administrators, and staff) Benefits greatly from multiple perspectives. It’s better to work 1 day with 5 people than 5 days alone. Stems from the belief we can create change. No matter how big the problem and the constraints. It’s okay to fail and learn from your mistakes. You get feedback from them and iterate.
6. Students aren’t interested in this subject. There’s no network or community for teachers or students Communication with parents isn’t effective Classroom organization doesn’t accommodate different learning modes and class sizes Students have issues at home that they bring to the classroom that makes it difficult for them to learn What’s the point? How is this applicable to you as educators? IT HELPS YOU SOLVE YOUR PROBLEMS -Perhaps you redesign the learning experience in your classroom to better fit with 21st century students. -Perhaps your school district is going to redesign how curriculum is developed and delivered to center more needs of students and teacher -Perhaps you redesign how to engage your students and what they might gain from your class. What about students? IT HELPS THEM LEARN HOW TO SOLVE THEIR OWN PROBLEMS. Helps them develop communication and problem solving skills Helps them empathize Curriculum, spaces, processes and tools, and systems can all benefit from design thinking. As an example of redesigning classroom spaces: Interview students Develop new curriculua by brainstorming and then prototyping a unit
7. What should you remember? You are a designer. And you can be a change agent. Problems are opportunities for design. Stepping out of your comfort zone is learning. Don’t fear failure. Listen and play nicely
8. Empathize / Research Observe and listen to the problem or situation without preconceptions Learn about your audience by observation and interview. People often say one thing but behavior is different. Identify experts, locate extreme users Who is my user? What matters to this person? Define Define the problem, based on the evidence of the observations Often times research uncovers tangential issues you might solve for Constraints, guiding principles What are their needs? Ideate / Brainstorming Generate many ideas for potential solutions to the defined problem Prototype Build a representation of one or more of your ideas to show to others. Test / Evaluate Share your idea with your original user for feedback. What worked? What didn’t? Track learnings. Move forward. ===== There are many models for this. Empathize / Research Observe and listen to the problem or situation without preconceptions Learn about your audience by observation and interview. People often say one thing but behavior is different. Who is my user? What matters to this person? Identify experts, locate extreme users I have a problem. How do I approach it? Understand it. Research it. Define Define the problem, based on the evidence of the observations Often times research uncovers tangential issues you might solve for Constraints, guiding principles Create a point of view that is based on user needs. What are their needs? Redefine and focus your questions based on insights from the first stage I learned something. How do I interpret it? Tell stores. Search for something. Frame opportunities. Ideate / Brainstorming Generate many ideas for potential solutions to the define problem I see an opportunity. What do I create? Generate ideas. Refine ideas. Prototype Research and build working examples of ideas Build a representation of one or more of your ideas to show to others. How can I show my idea? I have an idea. How do I build it? Make prototypes. Get feedback. Test / Evaluate Apply example prototype to original situation or problem Share your idea with your original user for feedback. What worked? What didn’t? I tried something new. How do I evolve it? Track learnings. Move forward. Publish and Produce
9. Thank you for coming to my session! Slides are online right now. Additional resources will also be posted later.