Design Thinking Workshop/Process Documentation

This particular exercise was a. the first class I attended and b. the first time I saw how design thinking (correctly) really worked. It was much faster than I anticipated but I felt the time restraints were actually useful for keeping you on your feet.

We began by getting the manual and a group of random tools and objects. Things like paper, pencils, scissors and tape were all among the set we were given. 

The idea was to design something for the process of gift-giving, and we sat next to a partner of sorts who we asked questions.

What is your partner trying to achieve through gift giving?
-Empathy
-Connection to their friends
-Appreciation

After more insight into their lives we developed a short sentence that summed up what we were trying to accomplish. My partner Gabby provided the information and I came up with this:

Gabby needs a way to feel connected and appreciated because she does not want them to feel lonely or unappreciated.

We then followed the on-screen directions of a man in a workshop and went through more steps and answered the questions. My first "prototype" was okay, but I did not blame myself because there was not much direction in my thinking. Also many of the ideas were a little more optimistic than they should have been.

Thankfully we were given time to reflect and ask our peers. It was here I revised my idea for the future. 

I then took my best idea, an app, and fixed many poor design flaws. I ended up with an app that allowed your friends to know what you were up to and create social circles on your phone to always be in contact with them. (Think google+)

Even after that we reflected more and revised our ideas. There is not good design only good redesign.

Mood Board

Hands down the most enjoyable project I have completed this semester was the mood board. It is the basic rubric for creating the idea and information behind a design. You pick the colors, textures, and typography to display before you begin working on the actual design. This is so you have a clear idea of what works and holds consistency throughout the design process. 

In the beginning I had to pick a color template that I thought would accurately articulate design thinking. I went through a few different schemes until I picked the one I have here. The blues, greens and subtle purples were much calmer than most colors and with a serious and relaxing topic like design process it fit.

The whole board in general is a very simple and subtle design. It was my idea to easily describe the way the process works and I didn't want to make it very busy. I looked to a bunch of different mood boards online but could not find many to work from. I began taking bits and pieces from the best ones that fit my ideas. I researched the actual design process more than other templates. I wanted to better understand it before I worked up from there.

My first design had much more white space than my second. It also had type that was about 10 sizes up from the final. The grid ended up being two columns back to back. It was then moved into areas for each item. One for the color template, another for the headers, and a third for the typography. I then changed the original titles to put in some colors to show how I would used the color template I selected. The textures stayed the same but I added the boxes to also show where I wanted to final result to go. 

The few details that I changed from the beginning to the end made a considerable difference.